Handle cookies in Selenium WebDriver

In the previous post, we have seen how to work with multiple browser windows.In this post, we will learn how to Handle cookies in Selenium WebDriver.

What is a cookie?

Cookies are small text files which gets stored with browser’s directory. When we open any website in a browser, then cookie is used to keep track of the movements in the site, guide us to resume where we it was left off, other customization function, remember registered login, theme selection etc.

Deleting cookies may help in some following ways:

Deleting cookies is not very important, but it depends on the types of sites you deal with.

• It may Speed up computer.
• Cookies sometimes can redirect you to undesired sites
• You maybe concerned about your privacy. If you visit sites you don’t want others to know, deleting cookies is safe and good.

Selenium provides methods to add or delete cookies. Let’s understand with examples.

1. getCookies(): This helps to fetch all the cookies available in the website. It will give a set (collection) of cookies, which you can iterate over to see its details.

Code to display all the cookies available in Facebook WebSite:

public class getCookiesExample {
	private static WebDriver driver;
	public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
		
		driver = new FirefoxDriver();
		
		driver.manage().window().maximize();
		driver.get("http://facebook.com");
		Set<Cookie> cookie = driver.manage().getCookies();
		
		for(Cookie c : cookie){
			System.out.println(c);
		}
 	}
}

Output:

2. addCookie(): This method helps you to add the cookie into the existing cookies. Cookie can be added in a pair of String Key and value.If the cookie’s domain name is left blank, it is assumed that the cookie is meant for the domain of the current document.

Syntax: Syntax:driver.manage().addCookie(arg0);

In the below example, we are adding cookie with String “This is my cookie.” and value “12345“.

public class getCookiesExample {
	private static WebDriver driver;
	public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
		
		driver = new FirefoxDriver();
		
		driver.manage().window().maximize();
		driver.get("http://facebook.com");
		
		Cookie name = new Cookie("This is my cookie.", "123456");
		driver.manage().addCookie(name);
		
		Set<Cookie> cookie = driver.manage().getCookies();
		
		for(Cookie c : cookie){
			System.out.println(c);
		}
 	}
}

Output:

3. deleteCookieNamed(): Need to provide the name of the cookie which needs to be deleted. In te above cookie output , we have one cookie “_js_reg_fb_gate”. Let’s observe the output.

public class getCookiesExample {
	private static WebDriver driver;
	public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
		
		driver = new FirefoxDriver();
		
		driver.manage().window().maximize();
		driver.get("http://facebook.com");
		
		Cookie name = new Cookie("This is my cookie.", "123456");
		driver.manage().addCookie(name);
		
		driver.manage().deleteCookieNamed("_js_reg_fb_gate");
		Set<Cookie> cookie = driver.manage().getCookies();
		
		for(Cookie c : cookie){
			System.out.println(c);
		}
 	}
}

Specified cookie has been deleted in the output.

4. deleteAllCookies(): It will delete all the cookies available in the Website. Let’s observe in the program.

	public class getCookiesExample {
		private static WebDriver driver;
		public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
			
			driver = new FirefoxDriver();
			
			driver.manage().window().maximize();
			driver.get("http://facebook.com");
			
			Cookie name = new Cookie("This is my cookie.", "123456");
			driver.manage().addCookie(name);
			
			driver.manage().deleteAllCookies();
			Set<Cookie> cookie = driver.manage().getCookies();
			
			for(Cookie c : cookie){
				System.out.println(c);
			}
	 	}
	}

Output: All cookies will be deleted.