<sect1 id="cookie">


<sect1info>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Krishna</firstname>
<surname>Tateneni</surname>
<affiliation><address><email>
tateneni@pluto.njcc.com
</email></address></affiliation>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Jost</firstname>
<surname>Schenck</surname>
<affiliation><address><email>
jost@schenck.de
</email></address></affiliation>
</author>
</authorgroup>

<date>26/01/2001</date>
<releaseinfo>1.00.00</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>cookie</keyword>
</keywordset>

</sect1info>


<title>Cookies</title>

<para>Cookies  are  a  mechanism  used  by  web  sites  to  store  and  retrieve
information  using your  browser.  For example,  a  web site  may  allow you  to
customize the content and layout of the  pages you see, so that your choices are
persistent across different visits to that web site.</para>

<para>The web site is able to remember your preferences by storing a cookie on
your computer. Then, on future visits, the web site retrieves the information
stored in the cookie to format the content of the site according to your
previously specified preferences.</para>

<para>Thus, cookies play a very useful role in web browsing.  Unfortunately, web
sites often store and retrieve information in cookies without your explicit
knowledge or consent. Some of this information may be quite useful to the web
site owners, for example, by allowing them to collect summary statistics on the
number of visits different areas of the web sites get, or to customize banner
advertising.</para>

<para>The cookies module of the &kcontrol; allows you to set policies
for the use of cookies when you are browsing the web with the &konqueror; web
browser. </para>
<warning><para>Note that the policies that you set using this control module will not
apply to other web browsers such as &Netscape;.</para></warning>

<sect2 id="cookie-policy">

<title>Policy</title>

<para>Using the <guilabel>Policy</guilabel> tab, you can configure the &kde;
applications will handle cookies. You can do this by specifying a general cookie
policy as well as special cookie policies for certain domains or hosts.</para>

<para>The top of the policy tab has a checkbox labeled <guilabel>Enable
Cookies</guilabel>. If you leave this unchecked, cookies will be completely
disabled. However, this may make browsing rather inconvenient, especially as
some web sites require the use of browsers with cookies enabled.</para>

<para>Therefore, you will probably want to enable cookies, and then set specific
policies on how you want them to be handled. There are three possible options,
as seen in the group of radio buttons labeled "<guilabel>Default
Policy</guilabel>".</para>

<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Ask for confirmation before accepting cookies</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>If this option is selected, you will be asked for confirmation
every time a cookie is stored or retrieved. You can selectively accept or reject
each cookie. The confirmation dialog will also allow you to set a domain
specific policy, if you do not want to confirm each cookie for that
domain.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Accept all cookies</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>If this option is selected, all cookies will be accepted without
asking for confirmation.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><guilabel>Reject all cookies</guilabel></term>
<listitem><para>If this option is selected, all cookies will be rejected without
asking for confirmation.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>

<para>In addition to the default policy for handling of cookies, which you can
set by selecting one of the three options described above, you can also set
policies for specific host domains using the controls in the <guilabel>Domain
Specific</guilabel> group.</para>

<para>The <guilabel>Ask, Accept, or Reject</guilabel> policy can be applied to
a specific domain by clicking on the <guibutton>Add...</guibutton> button,
which brings up a dialog. In this dialog, you can type the name of the domain
(with a leading dot), then select the policy you want to apply to this
domain. Note that entries may also get added while you are browsing, if the
default policy is to ask for confirmation, and you choose a general policy for a
specific host (for example, by selecting <guilabel>Reject all cookies from this
domain</guilabel> when asked to confirm a cookie.)</para>

<para>You can also select a specific host domain from the list, and click the
<guibutton>Change...</guibutton> button to choose a different policy for that
domain than the one shown in the list.</para>

<para>To delete a domain specific policy, choose a domain from the list, and
then click the <guibutton>Delete</guibutton> button. The default policy will
apply to domains which have been deleted from the list. </para>

<para>If you have previously exported cookie policies to a file, you can merge
those policies with the ones listed by clicking on the
<guibutton>Import...</guibutton> button and selecting the file. To create a
compressed archive file of the cookie policies shown in the list, click on the
<guibutton>Export...</guibutton> and save the file to a location of your
choice. </para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="cookie-management">
<title>Management</title>

<para>In the <guilabel>Management</guilabel> tab you can browse and selectively
delete cookies that have been set in the past.</para>

<para>In the upper part of this dialog you can see a list of domains, displayed
as a tree. Click on the little <guiicon>+</guiicon> next to a domain to see all
cookies that have been set for this particular target domain. If you select one
of these cookies, you'll notice that its contents will show up in the frame
<guilabel>Cookie details</guilabel> below.</para>

<para>By clicking the <guibutton>Delete</> button you can now delete the selected
cookie. Click <guibutton>Delete all</> to delete all cookies stored.</para>

</sect2>

<sect2 id="cookie-author">

<title>Section Author</title>

<para>This section written by:</para>
<para>Krishna Tateneni
<email>tateneni@pluto.njcc.com</email>.</para>
<para>Jost Schenck
<email>jost@schenck.de</email>.</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>
