cookie.js – simplifying cookies in JavaScript

cookie.js is a tiny JavaScript library that simplifies cookies. It is capable of setting, getting and removing cookies, accepts a variety of parameters, and supports chaining. cookie.js is released under the MIT/X11 license. It doesn't have any dependencies and if minified it's only ~1.4 KiB large (~0.7 KiB if minified and gzipped).

This script will add an object called cookie to your global scope.

Why would you want to use it?

Working with cookies in JavaScript sucks. document.cookie is definitely one of the ugly parts of JavaScript. This library aims to simplify working with cookies and make them more fun to use.

Usage

Download cookie.min.js and include it in your HTML document:

<script src="cookie.min.js"></script>

After that you can call any of methods that are explained in the following.

cookie.set()

You can use the cookie.set method to set cookies. The value will automatically be escaped for you.

cookie.set('key', 'value');

You can also set several values at once:

cookie.set({
   key1: 'value1',
   key2: 'value2'
});

If you need more options, like setting the expiry date, you can add an object with options as the third parameter:

cookie.set('key', 'value', {
   expires: 7, // expires in one week
});

The following fields can be added to the mentioned object:

key	value	default value
expires	Either a number containing the days until the expiry, a date in the GMTString format or a date object.	Expires when the browser is closed.
domain	A string that specifies the domain that can access the cookie.	The current domain.
path	A string that limits the access of the cookie to that path.	The current path.
secure	A boolean indicating whether the cookie shall only be accessable over a secure connection or not.	false

cookie.get()

This method allows you to retrieve your cookies, you can use it by simply passing the key of the cookie:

cookie.get('key');

Passing just one key like this will return a string, containing the value of the cookie. You can also pass an array of keys:

cookie.get(['key1', 'key2']);

This will always return an object. The keys of this object will be the keys you passed and the values are the corresponding values.

In case you want to add a default value you can use the second parameter. The default value will be returned if the cookie*(s)* could not be found:

cookie.get('key', 'default value');

This also works with several keys:

cookie.get(['key1', 'key2'], 'default value');

cookie() is a shortcut for cookie.get().

cookie.get('key'); 
// is the same as
cookie('key');

cookie.all()

var cookies = cookie.all();

To get all of the currently saved cookies simply call cookie.all. In this case the variable cookies will return an object with all the current cookies.

cookie.remove()

This method allows you to remove cookies. It accepts an infinite number of keys or an array of keys.

cookie.remove('key');
cookie.remove('key1', 'key2');
cookie.remove(['key1', 'key2']);

cookie.empty()

Sometimes you may want to remove all cookies. Simply call cookie.empty() and every cookie will be removed.

cookie.enabled()

This method allows you to test if the cookies are enabled. It returns true if you can work with cookies and false if you cannot. You might want to use a fallback if they are disabled:

if (cookie.enabled()) {
   // Do stuff with cookies
} else {
   // Display error message or use localStorage
}

Chaining

The methods set, remove and empty return the cookie object and therefore enable chaining.

cookie.empty().set('key', 'value').set('key2', 'value2').remove('key1');

Contribute

If you find any bugs in this script or have ideas how to improve it please let me know. You are also very welcome to contribute to the code here on github.