how to test if a javascript cookie has expired?

Question

Is it possible to test if a javascript cookie has expired using?

I need to do a few thing conditionally and two of those conditions are overlapping for which if it could be tested whether a cookie has expired then it will be easier for me to get things done.

I am using jquery-1.5.js and jquery.cookies.js plugin.

Thanks.

CODE

var jq = jQuery.noConflict();
jq(document).ready(function () {

    var timeStart, timeSubmit, timeLeft;
    timeSubmit = 5 * 60 * 1000;
    timeStart = jaaulde.utils.cookies.get("_watchman");
    try {
        if(jaaulde.utils.cookies.test()) {
            throw "err1";
        }
        else if(hasCookieExpired) {
            throw "err2";
        }
        else if(!timeStart) {
            jaaulde.utils.cookies.set("_watchman", String(new Date().getTime()), {path: '/path', expiresAt: new Date((new Date().getTime() + timeSubmit))});
            timeLeft = timeSubmit - (new Date().getTime() - Number(jaaulde.utils.cookies.get("_watchman")));
            timeCheck();
        }
        else {
            timeLeft = timeSubmit - (new Date().getTime() - Number(jaaulde.utils.cookies.get("_tts")));         

            timeCheck();
        }

    } catch(err) {
        //handle errors
    }

    function timeCheck() {
            if(timeLeft <= 0) {
                triggerSubmit();
            }
            else {
                setTimeout(triggerSubmit, timeLeft);    
                setInterval(showTimeLeft, 1000);
            }       
    }

    function triggerSubmit() {
        //submit it
    }

    function showTimeLeft() {
        //do something
    }

});

Answer 1

A browser will automatically remove any cookie once it expires, so all you need to do is check whether the cookie exists or not.

Answer 2

if( $.cookie('yourCookie') === null ) {
    // EXPIRED
} else {
    // DO SOMETHING ELSE
}

Or like this using Ternary operator:

$.cookie('yourCookie') === null ? /* EXPIRED */ : /* DO SOMETHING ELSE */;

---

https://github.com/carhartl/jquery-cookie (No longer maintained, archived)
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Document/cookie
https://github.com/js-cookie/js-cookie

Answer 3

If you say that the browser did not remove the cookie, it's probably because your time zone is different from UTC.