Set a cookie in a iOS app and read that cookie from Safari

Question

I'm trying to do the following: Inside my appDelegate I'm setting a cookie. After that I'm trying to read that cookie using JavaScript from a webapp. Is this possible? Because I can't make it work...

This is my code in the iOS app:

NSMutableDictionary *cookieProperties = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
[cookieProperties setObject:@"test" forKey:NSHTTPCookieName];
[cookieProperties setObject:@"yes" forKey:NSHTTPCookieValue];
[cookieProperties setObject:self.siteURL forKey:NSHTTPCookieDomain];
[cookieProperties setObject:self.siteURL forKey:NSHTTPCookieOriginURL];
[cookieProperties setObject:@"/" forKey:NSHTTPCookiePath];
[cookieProperties setObject:@"0" forKey:NSHTTPCookieVersion];

[cookieProperties setObject:[[NSDate date] dateByAddingTimeInterval:9629743] forKey:NSHTTPCookieExpires];

NSHTTPCookie *cookie = [NSHTTPCookie cookieWithProperties:cookieProperties];
[[NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage] setCookie:cookie];

And in my JavaScript I'm using the jquery.cookie plugin for writing and reading cookies. But nothing is there... This is my code:

cookieValue = $.cookie("test");
alert(cookieValue);

The alert has in the body "[object Object]" and there should be the "yes" value I set in my app.

Do you guys think this is possible?

Thanks!

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 23 '13 at 19:07

Not possible: the global Safari cookie cache isn't accessible to third-party applications, as that would be a significant security hole. If you need to send cookie information to Safari you'd be better served launching a URL into Safari with the cookie details as request parameters and then having the script at the end of that URL create the cookies and send them back.

EDIT: If you want to be slick you can register a URL handler for your iOS app and then launch the URL to your web app. Have your web app set the cookies, then redirect back to the app URL.

Set a cookie in a iOS app and read that cookie from Safari

1 Answers1