NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies example in Objective C (iOS).

NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies

Adds an array of cookies to the receiver if the receiver’s cookie acceptance policy permits.

- (void)setCookies:(NSArray *)cookies forURL:(NSURL *)theURL mainDocumentURL:(NSURL *)mainDocumentURL

Parameters of [NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies]
cookies
The cookies to add.
theURL
The URL associated with the added cookies.
mainDocumentURL
The URL of the main HTML document for the top-level frame, if known. Can be nil. This URL is used to determine if the cookie should be accepted if the cookie accept policy is NSHTTPCookieAcceptPolicyOnlyFromMainDocumentDomain.

Discussion of [NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies]
The cookies will replace existing cookies with the same name, domain, and path, if one exists in the cookie storage. The cookie will be ignored if the receiver's cookie accept policy is NSHTTPCookieAcceptPolicyNever.

To store cookies from a set of response headers, an application can use cookiesWithResponseHeaderFields:forURL: passing a header field dictionary and then use this method to store the resulting cookies in accordance with the receiver’s cookie acceptance policy.

NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies example.

- ( void )connection: (NSURLConnection *)connection
          didReceiveResponse: (NSURLResponse *)response
{
    NSHTTPURLResponse        *httpResponse = (NSHTTPURLResponse *)response;
    NSArray                  *cookies;

    cookies = [ NSHTTPCookie cookiesWithResponseHeaderFields:
                             [ httpResponse allHeaderFields ]];
    [[ NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage ]
            setCookies: cookies forURL: self.url mainDocumentURL: nil ];
}

Example of [NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies].

    NSHTTPURLResponse   * response;
    NSError             * error;
    NSMutableURLRequest * request;
    request = [[[NSMutableURLRequest alloc] initWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://temp/gomh/authenticate.py?setCookie=1"]
                                            cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringCacheData
                                        timeoutInterval:60] autorelease];

    [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:&response error:&error]; 
    NSLog(@"RESPONSE HEADERS: \n%@", [response allHeaderFields]);

    // If you want to get all of the cookies:
    NSArray * all = [NSHTTPCookie cookiesWithResponseHeaderFields:[response allHeaderFields] forURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://temp"]];
    NSLog(@"How many Cookies: %d", all.count);
    // Store the cookies:
    // NSHTTPCookieStorage is a Singleton.
    [[NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage] setCookies:all forURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://temp"] mainDocumentURL:nil];

    // Now we can print all of the cookies we have:
    for (NSHTTPCookie *cookie in all)
        NSLog(@"Name: %@ : Value: %@, Expires: %@", cookie.name, cookie.value, cookie.expiresDate);

    // Now lets go back the other way.  We want the server to know we have some cookies available:
    // this availableCookies array is going to be the same as the 'all' array above.  We could
    // have just used the 'all' array, but this shows you how to get the cookies back from the singleton.
    NSArray * availableCookies = [[NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage] cookiesForURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"http://temp"]];
    NSDictionary * headers = [NSHTTPCookie requestHeaderFieldsWithCookies:availableCookies];

    // we are just recycling the original request
    [request setAllHTTPHeaderFields:headers];

    request.URL = [NSURL URLWithString:@"http://temp/gomh/authenticate.py"];
    error       = nil;
    response    = nil;

    NSData * data = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request returningResponse:&response error:&error];
    NSLog(@"The server saw:\n%@", [[[NSString alloc] initWithData:data encoding: NSASCIIStringEncoding] autorelease]);

NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies example.

Save:

NSArray* allCookies = [[NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage] cookiesForURL:[NSURL URLWithString:URL]];
for (NSHTTPCookie *cookie in allCookies) {
    if ([cookie.name isEqualToString:MY_COOKIE]) {
        NSMutableDictionary* cookieDictionary = [NSMutableDictionary dictionaryWithDictionary:[[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] dictionaryForKey:PREF_KEY]];
        [cookieDictionary setValue:cookie.properties forKey:URL];
        [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:cookieDictionary forKey:PREF_KEY];
    }
 }
Load:

NSDictionary* cookieDictionary = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] dictionaryForKey:PREF_KEY];
NSDictionary* cookieProperties = [cookieDictionary valueForKey:URL];
if (cookieProperties != nil) {
    NSHTTPCookie* cookie = [NSHTTPCookie cookieWithProperties:cookieProperties];
    NSArray* cookieArray = [NSArray arrayWithObject:cookie];
    [[NSHTTPCookieStorage sharedHTTPCookieStorage] setCookies:cookieArray forURL:[NSURL URLWithString:URL] mainDocumentURL:nil];
}

End of NSHTTPCookieStorage setCookies example article.