Delete cookie data

Question

I've created a cookie as shown and append any newly added data to the cookie:

if (cart == null) {
               //Create an instance of the cookieJar class, passing it the values entered in the fields
                cookieJar c = new cookieJar(p.productid, selSize, selColour, String.valueOf(p.qtyToBuy));          
            } else {   //Append cookie
               String pid = cart.getValue();
               String psize = cart2.getValue();
               String pqty = cart3.getValue();
               String pcol = cart4.getValue();

               cookieJar c = new cookieJar(p.productid + ',' + pid, selSize + ',' + psize, selColour + ',' + pcol ,String.valueOf(p.qtyToBuy) + ',' + pqty);

            }

I would like to delete the cookie data based on the productid. Is there way to do so? I understand from documentation that After you create a cookie, the properties of the cookie can't be changed. Does that mean that I can't delete the cookie?

On the other hand, I've tried using Javascript on my VF page to delete the particular cookie with product id, but it doesn't seems to work.

        <apex:column headerValue="Product" value="{!item.Name}"/>
       <apex:column headerValue="Colour" value="{!item.Color}"/> 
       <apex:column headerValue="Size" value="{!item.Size}"/> 
       <apex:column headerValue="Quantity">
            <apex:outputText value="{!item.qtyToBuy}" />
        </apex:column>

          <apex:column headerValue="Remove">
          <apex:commandLink action="{!removecon}" reRender="s" >
          <apex:param assignTo="{!conid}" value="{!item.productid}" name="assignvalue" />Remove </apex:commandLink> 
        <apex:actionSupport event="onclick" oncomplete="deletecook();" reRender="s" />
        </apex:column>

        </apex:pageblocktable>        
    </apex:pageblock>

  <script>
function deletecook() {
document.cookie = "productid='{!conid}'; expires=Thu, 18 Dec 2013 12:00:00 UTC; path=/";
 alert(document.cookie);
 }

Cookie Jar Class

public class cookieJar {


        // The controller extension does the work
        public cookieJar(String productid, String productsize, String productcolour, String qtyToBuy) {

            Cookie pId = new Cookie('productid', productid,null,-1,false);
            Cookie pSize = new Cookie('productSize', productsize,null,-1,false);
            Cookie qty = new Cookie('qtyToBuy', qtyToBuy,null,-1,false);
            Cookie pCol = new Cookie('productColour', productcolour,null,-1,false);

            //Set the page cookies using the setCookies() method
            ApexPages.currentPage().setCookies(new Cookie[]{pId, pSize, pCol, qty});

        }


    }//end cookieJar inner class
}

Any help will be greatly appreciated, Thanks guys!

Answer 1

You just have to set the maxAge value to zero, which is the equivalent of the standard way of setting the expiry date on the past.

From the documentation: Cookie Class

MaxAge: A number representing how long a cookie is valid for in seconds. If set to less than zero, a session cookie is issued. If set to zero, the cookie is deleted.

E.g. based on cookie set in cookieJar

Cookie pId = new Cookie('productid', '',null,0,false); // Note the 0 to delete the cookie
ApexPages.currentPage().setCookies(new Cookie[]{pId});

Answer 2

Instead of setting maxAge -1, set it to 0. It will delete the cookie.

You can use the Apex Cookie class.