Visualforce Developer Guide

Introducing Visualforce
Tools for Visualforce Development
Getting a Quick Start with Visualforce
Customizing the Appearance and Output of Visualforce Pages
Standard Controllers
Standard List Controllers
Custom Controllers and Controller Extensions
Live Controller (Pilot)
Advanced Examples
Overriding Buttons, Links, and Tabs with Visualforce
Using Static Resources
Creating and Using Custom Components
Dynamic Visualforce Bindings
Dynamic Visualforce Components
Integrating Email with Visualforce
Visualforce Charting
Creating Maps with Visualforce
Render Flows with Visualforce
Templating with Visualforce
Developing Salesforce Apps with Visualforce
Adding Visualforce to a Salesforce AppExchange App
Using JavaScript in Visualforce Pages
Communicating Across the DOM with Lightning Message Service
Best Practices
Standard Component Reference
Appendices
Global Variables, Functions, and Expression Operators
Security Tips for Apex and Visualforce Development
Apex Classes Used in Visualforce Controllers
ApexPages Class
Action Class
Cookie Class
Cookie Constructors
Cookie Methods
IdeaStandardController Class
IdeaStandardSetController Class
KnowledgeArticleVersionStandardController Class
Message Class
PageReference Class
SelectOption Class
StandardController Class
StandardSetController Class
Execution Governors and Limits
Glossary
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Cookie Class

The Cookie class lets you access cookies for your Salesforce site using Apex.

Namespace

System

Usage

Use the setCookies method of the PageReference Class to attach cookies to a page.
  • Cookie names and values set in Apex are URL encoded, that is, characters such as @ are replaced with a percent sign and their hexadecimal representation.
  • The setCookies method adds the prefix “apex__” to the cookie names.
  • Setting a cookie's value to null sends a cookie with an empty string value instead of setting an expired attribute.
  • After you create a cookie, the properties of the cookie can't be changed.
  • Be careful when storing sensitive information in cookies. Pages are cached regardless of a cookie value. If you use a cookie value to generate dynamic content, you should disable page caching. For more information, see “Cache Salesforce Sites Pages” in the Salesforce Help.

Important

Consider the following limitations when using the Cookie class:
  • The Cookie class can only be accessed using Apex that is saved using the Salesforce API version 19 and above.
  • The maximum number of cookies that can be set per Salesforce Sites domain depends on your browser. Newer browsers have higher limits than older ones.
  • Cookies must be less than 4K, including name and attributes.
  • The maximum header size of a Visualforce page, including cookies, is 8,192 bytes.

For more information on sites, see “Salesforce Sites” in the Salesforce online help.

Example

The following example creates a class, CookieController, which is used with a Visualforce page (see markup below) to update a counter each time a user displays a page. The number of times a user goes to the page is stored in a cookie.

The following is the Visualforce page that uses the CookieController Apex controller above. The action {!count} calls the getCount method in the controller above.