how to persist cookies between different casperjs processes

Question

this is a question about how to persist cookies from one casperjs page to another..

so basically i got a nodejs file that spawns casperjs as a worker to do certain tasks.. one is to login, once logged in I store the cookie in a file.

when i spawn the next casper worker.. i want it to to use the cookie rather having to login again.. both these methods failed:

first: when i spawn the worker capserjs I add the --cookies-file=./cookiefilename ie var child = spawn('casperjs',['scrape.js','--cookies-file=./'+cookieFileName]);

second: within the casperjs worker file.. I make it read and set the cookie from a file ie

var casper = require('casper').create();
var cookieFileName = 'monsterCookie.txt';

// grab cookies from file 
var fs = require('fs');
var utils = require('utils');
var cookies = fs.read(cookieFileName);

casper.page.setCookies(cookies); 

casper.start('domain/page.html', function() {
    //FAIL! cookies aren't used here
    this.debugHTML();
});

casper.run();

notes:

1. it was mentioned earlier that start removes cookies from the page? if so how do I prevent that?
   
2. I know that sessions persist within the same phantomjs page object (see here https://gist.github.com/abbood/5347252) and same happens within the same casperjs page object (see here https://gist.github.com/abbood/5347287)
3. keep in mind that I store cookies as is in the file (ie without any json/cookie parsing at all).. so my cookie file looks exactly like this

[General] cookies="@Variant(\0\0\0\x7f\0\0\0\x16QList\0\0\0\0\x1\0\0\0\n\0\0\0YCNTR=LB; expires=Tue, 09-Apr-2013 17:12:05 GMT; domain=.recruiter.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0qUID=13eb22f-2.21.171.120-1365523938; expires=Mon, 30-Mar-2015 16:12:18 GMT; domain=.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0]UIDR=1365523938; expires=Mon, 30-Mar-2015 16:12:18 GMT; domain=.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0[R_LANG=en; expires=Thu, 09-May-2013 16:16:06 GMT; domain=.recruiter.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0\x94\x43=4gpUmUGr2jgDrs4xOJVrGaNbD8DtYSd1E6quyLhe3E4F3EAGhbRJucnDgRVDeHh0; expires=Thu, 09-May-2013 16:16:06 GMT; domain=.recruiter.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0\x94WT_FPC=id=20cf093f17f2c6f3d041365495136954:lv=1365495369854:ss=1365495136954; expires=Fri, 07-Apr-2023 08:16:09 GMT; domain=.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0\xc4\x41\x43OOKIE=C8ctADE3OC4xMzUuMTQ3LjM5LTI4NzQ5NzQ0LjMwMjkxMjYxAAAAAAAAAAABAAAAmyoBAMo+ZFHhPWRRAQAAAAJWAADKPmRR4T1kUQAAAAA-; expires=Thu, 09-Apr-2015 16:16:10 GMT; domain=statse.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0Yv1st=CE061E87215F2D73; expires=Wed, 19-Feb-2020 14:28:00 GMT; domain=.domain.com; path=/\0\0\0\x84\x43OOKIE_ID=178.135.147.39-2368749744.30291261; expires=Fri, 07-Apr-2023 16:16:11 GMT; domain=cookie.domain.com; path=/DCS000065_7K5I\0\0\0\xbe\x41\x43OOKIE=C8ctADE3OC4xMzUuMTQ3LjM5LTIzNjg3NDk3NDQuMzAyOTEyNjEAAAAAAAABAAAAQQAAAM0+ZFHNPmRRAQAAAAEAAADNPmRRzT5kUQAAAAA-; expires=Fri, 07-Apr-2023 16:16:13 GMT; domain=cookie.domain.com; path=/)"

Answer 1

Saving cookies:

var fs = require('fs');
var cookies = JSON.stringify(phantom.cookies);
fs.write(cookieFilename, cookies, 644);

Restoring cookies:

var fs = require('fs');
var data = fs.read(cookieFilename);
phantom.cookies = JSON.parse(data);

The phantom is global variable in PhantomJS. More information you can get in wiki

Answer 2

@imos Great answer! It just helped me out and I was hoping I could add some more.

You can also add individual cookies to a page using:

var fs = require('fs')
var data = fs.read(file)
var cookies = JSON.parse(data)

for(var i = 0; i < cookies.length; i++) {
    phantom.addCookie(cookies[i]);
}

This might help if there are multiple cookie files.