Prentice Hall and Sun Microsystems. Personal use only; do not redistribute.

Chapter

ookies are small bits of textual information that a Web server sends to

a browser and that the browser returns unchanged when later visiting

C

the same Web site or domain. By letting the server read information

it sent the client previously, the site can provide visitors with a number of

conveniences such as presenting the site the way the visitor previously cus 

tomized it or letting identifiable visitors in without their having to enter a

password. Most browsers avoid caching documents associated with cookies,

so the site can return different content each time. 

This chapter discusses how to explicitly set and read cookies from within

servlets, and the next chapter shows you how to use the servlet session track 

ing API (which can use cookies behind the scenes) to keep track of users as

they move around to different pages within your site.

8.1 Benefits of Cookies

This section summarizes four typical ways in which cookies can add value to

your site.

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