How to set a Cookie in Liferay portlet?

Question

Hi All,

I am having problems of trying to set a session cookie(s) in Liferay 6.0 portlets. I want to be able to set a cookie to the client browser to store application key for the linkedin authentication, where it can be then retrieved by other portlets.

I am able to read cookies by using a following:

public void addLinkedInCV(ActionRequest request, ActionResponse response)
            throws PortalException, SystemException {

        HttpServletRequest convertReq = PortalUtil
                .getHttpServletRequest(request);
        Cookie[] cookies = convertReq.getCookies();
...

Here's my failed attempt to read one.

@Override
    public void doView(RenderRequest renderRequest,RenderResponse renderResponse) throws IOException, PortletException {

        HttpServletResponse convertRes = PortalUtil.getHttpServletResponse(renderResponse);
        HttpServletResponse originalRes = (HttpServletResponse) ((HttpServletResponseWrapper) convertRes).getResponse();

        Cookie linkedInCookie = new Cookie("linkedIn", util.getAppKey());
        originalRes.addCookie(linkedInCookie);

Answer 1

Without heavily modifying the Liferay portal itself, I found that the only way to set the portlet cookies is to have the portlet generate a javascript, which will then let the client set the cookie.

So I added the following to the doView method.

if (renderRequest.getPortletSession(true).getAttribute("set_cookie")!=null){
                return;
            }

            String cookie_value = renderRequest.getPortletSession(true).getId();
            String cookie_hours = "6";

            StringBuffer buf = new StringBuffer();
            buf.append("\n ");
            buf.append("\n var today = new Date();");
            buf.append("\n var expires_date = new Date ( today.getTime() + (" + cookie_hours + "*1000*60*60) );");
            buf.append("\n document.cookie = \"linkedIn=" + util.getAppKey() + ";expires=\"+expires_date.toGMTString();");    
            buf.append("\n ");

            renderResponse.setContentType("text/html");
            PrintWriter out = renderResponse.getWriter();
            out.println(buf.toString());
            renderRequest.getPortletSession(true).setAttribute(SET_COOKIE, cookie_value);

Not an optimal, but a working solution nethertheless ;)