How to store an object in a cookie?

Question

While this is possible in C#: (User is a L2S class in this instance)

User user = // function to get user
Session[\"User\"] = user;

why this

Answer 1

Cookie store only strings. What you can do:

 var serializer = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
 var json = serializer.Serialize(user);
controller.Response.SetCookie(
        new HttpCookie({string_name}, json)
        {
            Expires = false // use this when you want to delete
                    ? DateTime.Now.AddMonths(-1)
                    : DateTime.Now.Add({expiration})
        });

This should insert the entire object to cookie.

In order to read from the cookie back to an object:

    public static {Object_Name} GetUser(this Controller controller)
    {

        var httpRequest = controller.Request;

        if (httpRequest.Cookies[{cookie_name}] == null)
        {
            return null;
        }
        else
        {
            var json = httpRequest.Cookies[{cookie_name}].Value;
            var serializer = new System.Web.Script.Serialization.JavaScriptSerializer();
            var result = serializer.Deserialize<{object_name}>(json);
            return result;
        }

    }