Module java.base
Package java.net

Class CookieManager

java.lang.Object
java.net.CookieHandler
java.net.CookieManager
public class CookieManager extends CookieHandler
CookieManager provides a concrete implementation of CookieHandler, which separates the storage of cookies from the policy surrounding accepting and rejecting cookies. A CookieManager is initialized with a CookieStore which manages storage, and a CookiePolicy object, which makes policy decisions on cookie acceptance/rejection.

The HTTP cookie management in java.net package looks like: 


                  use
 CookieHandler <------- HttpURLConnection
       ^
       | impl
       |         use
 CookieManager -------> CookiePolicy
             |   use
             |--------> HttpCookie
             |              ^
             |              | use
             |   use        |
             |--------> CookieStore
                            ^
                            | impl
                            |
                  Internal in-memory implementation
  • CookieHandler is at the core of cookie management. User can call CookieHandler.setDefault to set a concrete CookieHandler implementation to be used.
  • CookiePolicy.shouldAccept will be called by CookieManager.put to see whether or not one cookie should be accepted and put into cookie store. User can use any of three pre-defined CookiePolicy, namely ACCEPT_ALL, ACCEPT_NONE and ACCEPT_ORIGINAL_SERVER, or user can define his own CookiePolicy implementation and tell CookieManager to use it.
  • CookieStore is the place where any accepted HTTP cookie is stored in. If not specified when created, a CookieManager instance will use an internal in-memory implementation. Or user can implements one and tell CookieManager to use it.
  • Currently, only CookieStore.add(URI, HttpCookie) and CookieStore.get(URI) are used by CookieManager. Others are for completeness and might be needed by a more sophisticated CookieStore implementation, e.g. a NetscapeCookieStore.

There're various ways user can hook up his own HTTP cookie management behavior, e.g.

  • Use CookieHandler.setDefault to set a brand new CookieHandler implementation
  • Let CookieManager be the default CookieHandler implementation, but implement user's own CookieStore and CookiePolicy and tell default CookieManager to use them: 
           // this should be done at the beginning of an HTTP session
       CookieHandler.setDefault(new CookieManager(new MyCookieStore(), new MyCookiePolicy()));
  • Let CookieManager be the default CookieHandler implementation, but use customized CookiePolicy: 
           // this should be done at the beginning of an HTTP session
       CookieHandler.setDefault(new CookieManager());
       // this can be done at any point of an HTTP session
       ((CookieManager)CookieHandler.getDefault()).setCookiePolicy(new MyCookiePolicy());

The implementation conforms to RFC 2965, section 3.3.

Since:
1.6
External Specifications
See Also: