You can create, delete and view browser cookies within PLSQL using an Oracle Web Agent (OWA) package called "owa_cookie".

This package can be used within APEX if required.

BEGIN

 

   owa_util.mime_header('text/html', FALSE);

   

   -- Create a cookie

   owa_cookie.send(

      name=>'MyCookie1',

      value=>'value1',

      expires=> sysdate+1,

      path=>'/');

 

   -- This cookie specifies a domain

   owa_cookie.send(

      name=>'MyCookie2',

      value=>'value2',

      expires=> sysdate+1,

      path=>'/',

      domain=>'example.com');

 

   owa_util.http_header_close;

 

EXCEPTION

   WHEN OTHERS THEN NULL;

 

END;

If you don't specify an expire date the cookie will only exist for the life of the current session.


To delete a cookie you can use :

owa_cookie.remove(

      name=>'MyCookie1',

      value=>NULL);

This procedure forces a cookie to expire immediately by setting the "expires" field of a Set-Cookie line in the HTTP header to "01-Jan-1990".

To read a value from a cookie you can use the owa_cookie.get function :

DECLARE



  MyCookie OWA_COOKIE.COOKIE;

  MyValue  VARCHAR2(50);

  

BEGIN



  -- Read cookie into cookie record

  MyCookie := OWA_COOKIE.GET('MyCookie1');

  

  -- Extract value from cookie record

  MyValue  := MyCookie.VALS(1); 



END;