How to store and restore cookies with ASP.NET Core 2.0?

Question

I created a sample web application with ASP.NET Core to test the storage and retrieval of the cookie. Unfortunately, I'm not able to store cookies.

I've read these questions for my problem:

Cookies in ASP.NET Core rc2

Create cookie with ASP.NET Core

Cookies and ASP.NET Core

But unfortunately I did not find a good answer.

I will first request an IndexA action to store the cookie. The code runs without any errors,but when I request IndexB action. Does not find the specified value

This is IndexA Action:

public IActionResult IndexA()
{
   Response.Cookies.Append("mykey", "myvalue",
    new CookieOptions()
    {
        Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(10)
    });
  return View();
}

This is IndexB Action:

public IActionResult IndexB()
{
   var cookie = Request.Cookies["mykey"];
   return View();
}

And This is Startup Class:

public class Startup
{
    public Startup(IConfiguration configuration)
    {
        Configuration = configuration;
    }

    public IConfiguration Configuration { get; }

    // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to add services to the container.
    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.Configure<CookiePolicyOptions>(options =>
        {
        // This lambda determines whether user consent for non-essential cookies is needed for a given request.
        options.CheckConsentNeeded = context => true;
            options.MinimumSameSitePolicy = SameSiteMode.None;
        });


        services.AddMvc().SetCompatibilityVersion(CompatibilityVersion.Version_2_1);
    }

    // This method gets called by the runtime. Use this method to configure the HTTP request pipeline.
    public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env)
    {
        if (env.IsDevelopment())
        {
            app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
        }
        else
        {
            app.UseExceptionHandler("/Home/Error");
        }

        app.UseStaticFiles();
        app.UseCookiePolicy();

        app.UseMvc(routes =>
        {
            routes.MapRoute(
                name: "default",
                template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
        });
    }
}

Can you check browser cookie by pressing F12 and clicking application tab. You can see the cookies on there — hasan, Aug 20 '18 at 14:33
Thanks for this suggestion, I checked the Cookie via Chrome developer tools - but unfortunately, nothing has been saved. — Ahmad Javadi Nezhad, Aug 20 '18 at 14:51
your welcome :) But i didnt understand why your code didnt create cookie, I wrote same code you did and it worked. — hasan, Aug 20 '18 at 14:54
there can be a timezone problem, can you change expiration to 1 year — hasan, Aug 20 '18 at 14:56
can you try to remove services.Configure() just for understand the problem — hasan, Aug 20 '18 at 15:16
Unfortunately, it didn't work again after remove that service — Ahmad Javadi Nezhad, Aug 20 '18 at 15:21
Your code above works with ASP.NET Core 2.1 on my PC . While the problem is that it cannot work with ASP.NET Core 2.0.x . As far as I know , the code `options.CheckConsentNeeded = context => true;` here is only available with ASP.NET Core 2.1 . Could you please check the dependencies and show us the `*.csproj` file ? — itminus, Aug 21 '18 at 07:28
You are right. The version I'm using is SDK 2.1.400 Which is .NET Core 2.1 — Ahmad Javadi Nezhad, Aug 21 '18 at 11:23

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 20 '18 at 23:13

I think it might have to do with the GDPR-related feature that ASP.NET Core 2.1 ships with. My understanding is that it allows websites to define which cookies are essential or not for the browser, and the non-essential ones won't be sent.

The first thing I can think of is to simply remove the check for consent for non-essential cookies. Do not do this in production as you might violate regulation!. Change:

services.Configure<CookiePolicyOptions>(options =>
{
    options.CheckConsentNeeded = context => true;
    options.MinimumSameSitePolicy = SameSiteMode.None;
});

to

services.Configure<CookiePolicyOptions>(options =>
{
    // No consent check needed here
    options.CheckConsentNeeded = context => false;
    options.MinimumSameSitePolicy = SameSiteMode.None;
});

The second potential way of fixing this is declaring your cookie as essential, so no matter what the consent check result is, your cookie will be sent over to the browser. To do this, change:

Response.Cookies.Append(
  "mykey",
  "myvalue",
  new CookieOptions()
  {
      Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(10)
  });

with

Response.Cookies.Append(
  "mykey",
  "myvalue",
  new CookieOptions()
  {
      Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(10),
      // Marking the cookie as essential
      IsEssential = true
  });

I applied both ways but didn't work for me, can you please let me know how to store cookie and startup class — , Dec 12 '18 at 17:19

Mario Levesque · Answer 2 · 2019-03-22T15:41:35.447

I am Working with ASP.NET core 2.2. Here is what I have in my ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) to inject the HttpContextAccessor into my controller.

    public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
    {
        services.AddMvc();
        //... some code
        //services.AddSingleton<IHttpContextAccessor, HttpContextAccessor>();
        services.AddHttpContextAccessor();
    }

Here is what I have in my controller:

    private readonly IHttpContextAccessor _httpContextAccessor;

    public MySomethingController(IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor)
    {
        //... some code
        this._httpContextAccessor = httpContextAccessor;
    }

Here is the code for the Action method:

[HttpGet]
    public IActionResult SomethingToDo()
    {
        //... some code for my controller

        //Section for handling cookies
        //set the key value in Cookie  
        SetCookie("MyOwnKey", "Hello World from cookie", 15.0);

        //read cookie from IHttpContextAccessor 
        string cookieValueFromContext = _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.Request.Cookies["MyOwnKey"];
        //or 
        string cookieValueFromRequest = GetCookie("MyOwnKey");

        //Delete the cookie object  
        //RemoveCookie("MyOwnKey");

        ViewData["CookieFromContext"] = cookieValueFromContext;
        ViewData["CookieFromRequest"] = cookieValueFromRequest;

        return View();
    }

Then I have the following methods:

    public string GetCookie(string key)
    {
        return Request.Cookies[key];
    }

    public void SetCookie(string key, string value, double? expireTime)
    {
        CookieOptions option = new CookieOptions();
        if (expireTime.HasValue)
            option.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(expireTime.Value);
        else
            option.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddMilliseconds(1);
        Response.Cookies.Append(key, value, option);
    }

    public void RemoveCookie(string key)
    {
        Response.Cookies.Delete(key);
    }

I am able to see the cookie value in another controller and pass it to the view. I have this in the home controller:

...
    private readonly IHttpContextAccessor _httpContextAccessor;
    private readonly IHostingEnvironment _hostingEnvironment;


    public HomeController(IHostingEnvironment hostingEnvironment, IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor)
    {
        this._hostingEnvironment = hostingEnvironment;
        this._httpContextAccessor = httpContextAccessor;
    }

    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        //read cookie from IHttpContextAccessor 
        string cookieValueFromContext = _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.Request.Cookies["MyOwnKey"];
        ViewData["CookieFromContext"] = cookieValueFromContext;

        return View();
    }

Good Luck

Could you please tell us how to update a cookie's value? Should I delete it first and then set it again? — Anastasios Moraitis, Aug 13 '19 at 18:18
@Anastasios Moraitis you may have to delete and add. I have not tried but intellisense only shows me Append, Delete, Equals, GetHashCode, GetType and ToString for its methods. Please note that the cookie has value but also might have an expiration. By "updating" you may want to replace the value, or the expiration or both. — Mario Levesque, Aug 14 '19 at 20:11

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 29 '20 at 22:14

A controller exposes HttpContext.Response.Cookies... There is no need to use dependency injection through the ConfigureServices method and there is no need to add the additional property to the controller. Just call HttpContext.Response.Cookies.Append(...);

How to store and restore cookies with ASP.NET Core 2.0?

3 Answers3