Session only cookies with Javascript

Question

I was wondering if it's possible to create session only cookies with Javascript. When the browser is closed the cookies should be removed.

I can't use anything on the server as the website is HTML only ... so no server side script is used.

I read something about this here: http://blog.lysender.com/2011/08/setting-session-only-cookie-via-javascript/ but i can't find any more information about this ... so i was wondering if this method is reliable.

Answer 1

Yes, that is correct.

Not putting an expires part in will create a session cookie, whether it is created in JavaScript or on the server.

See https://stackoverflow.com/a/532660/1901857

Answer 2

A simpler solution would be to use sessionStorage, in this case:

var myVariable = "Hello World";  sessionStorage['myvariable'] = myVariable;  var readValue = sessionStorage['myvariable']; console.log(readValue); 

However, keep in mind that sessionStorage saves everything as a string, so when working with arrays / objects, you can use JSON to store them:

var myVariable = {a:[1,2,3,4], b:"some text"};  sessionStorage['myvariable'] = JSON.stringify(myVariable); var readValue = JSON.parse(sessionStorage['myvariable']); 

A page session lasts for as long as the browser is open and survives over page reloads and restores. Opening a page in a new tab or window will cause a new session to be initiated.

So, when you close the page / tab, the data is lost.