From Scratch to Finish: Django Cookies Handling Does It All

In Django, cookies are a way to store small pieces of data on the client side (i.e., in the user’s web browser). Cookies can be used to store user preferences, track user activity, and more.

An informational tidbit called a cookie is kept by the client browser. It is utilised to permanently save user data in a file (or for the specified time).

Each cookie has an expiration date and time, and it is immediately removed when it does. Cookie set and cookie get methods are included in Django.

A cookie is set using the set cookie() method, and it is retrieved using the get() method.

Cookie values can also be obtained using the COOKIES[‘key’] array.

To set a cookie in Django, you can use the set_cookie method of the HttpResponse object. This method takes the name of the cookie, the value of the cookie, and an optional expiration time (in seconds). For example:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def my_view(request):
    response = HttpResponse()
    response.set_cookie('favorite_color', 'blue', 3600)
    return response

To read a cookie in Django, you can use the get method of the request.COOKIES dictionary. This method takes the name of the cookie and returns its value. For example:

def my_view(request):
    favorite_color = request.COOKIES.get('favorite_color')
    if favorite_color:
        # Do something with the favorite color
        pass
    else:
        # The cookie was not set or has expired
        pass

You can also delete a cookie by setting its value to an empty string and setting its expiration time to a time in the past. For example:

from django.http import HttpResponse

def my_view(request):
    response = HttpResponse()
    response.set_cookie('favorite_color', '', max_age=-3600)
    return response

It’s important to note that cookies are stored on the client side, so they can be modified or deleted by the user. As a result, you should not rely on cookies for storing sensitive information or data that you need to guarantee will be stored.