transient cookie size limit

[Ana]

I have written some code using transient cookies to send an edited
essay from one html page to another. Each paragraph of the essay is
saved in separate cookie. If the essay is 4 paragraphs long then I
write 4 different cookies.

This works on a Macantosh in Internet Explorer but for some reason on
a PC the cookies turn up empty. If I make the essay shorter then it
works on a PC, so it looks as if I am running up against the size
limitation on cookies? Is 4kb the limit of the total number of cookies
on a page? Do transient cookies have the same size limit as cookies
with an expiration date? I dont even think the essays are 4kb long.

Should I give up on cookies to move so much data and if so what
technology would you recommend I use? (No Database).

Any information or clues as to how to solve this problem would be
greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
AG

 

[Grant Wagner]

I have written some code using transient cookies to send an edited
essay from one html page to another. Each paragraph of the essay is
saved in separate cookie. If the essay is 4 paragraphs long then I
write 4 different cookies.

This works on a Macantosh in Internet Explorer but for some reason on
a PC the cookies turn up empty. If I make the essay shorter then it
works on a PC, so it looks as if I am running up against the size
limitation on cookies? Is 4kb the limit of the total number of cookies
on a page? Do transient cookies have the same size limit as cookies
with an expiration date? I dont even think the essays are 4kb long.

Should I give up on cookies to move so much data and if so what
technology would you recommend I use? (No Database).

Any information or clues as to how to solve this problem would be
greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
AG

<url: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2109/rfc2109 /> (see also <url:
http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2965.txt /> section 5.3)

6.3 Implementation Limits

....

* at least 300 cookies

* at least 4096 bytes per cookie (as measured by the size of the
characters that comprise the cookie non-terminal in the syntax description
of the Set-Cookie header)

* at least 20 cookies per unique host or domain name

User agents created for specific purposes or for limited-capacity devices
should provide at least 20 cookies of 4096 bytes, to ensure that the user
can interact with a session-based origin server.

<url: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;306070 />

Microsoft Internet Explorer complies with the following RFC 2109
recommended minimum limitations:

* at least 300 cookies
* at least 4096 bytes per cookie (as measured by the size of the
characters that comprise the cookie non-terminal in the syntax description
of the Set-Cookie header)
* at least 20 cookies per unique host or domain name

Note These recommended minimum limitations appear in RFC 2109, section
6.3, "Implementation Limits." For more information, see the "References"
section.


The cookie(s) content is uploaded with each request to the domain the
cookie is associated with. I seriously doubt you want 80Kb worth of
cookies being exchanged by the client and server during each HTTP request.

 

[Ana]

The cookie(s) content is uploaded with each request to the domain the
cookie is associated with. I seriously doubt you want 80Kb worth of
cookies being exchanged by the client and server during each HTTP request.

Thank you for your response.

I am not sure I understand one thing. Maybe I was unclear, but the
total size of the cookies on the page is just over 4k. Each cookie is
around 1k. Would there be 80kb worth of cookies being exchanged by the
client and the server?

Could you recommend a better way to implement this? I need to pass the
results of an editable essay (textbox) around 4 paragraphs long to
another page to be printed.

 

[Ana]

I'm starting to think that the problem is a bug with Internet
Explorer? Has anyone had this problem? Would I be more likely to get a
response to this question if I include the code?