Create & Manage Cookies in Flask and Python

When building a web application with Flask and Python, you may need to use cookies to store user session information or other data. In this article, we will explore how to create and manage cookies in a Flask application using Python.

Creating Cookies

To create a cookie in Flask, you can use the set_cookie() method provided by the response object. For example:

  
from flask import Flask, make_response

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def index():
    resp = make_response('Setting a cookie!')
    resp.set_cookie('username', 'john')
    return resp

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run()
  

Reading Cookies

To read a cookie in Flask, you can use the cookies attribute of the request object. For example:

  
from flask import Flask, request

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def index():
    username = request.cookies.get('username')
    # do something with the username
    return 'Hello, ' + username

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run()
  

Managing Cookies

In addition to creating and reading cookies, you can also modify and delete cookies in Flask. To modify a cookie, simply call set_cookie() again with the updated value. To delete a cookie, you can use the delete_cookie() method. For example:

  
from flask import Flask, make_response

app = Flask(__name__)

@app.route('/')
def index():
    resp = make_response('Deleting a cookie!')
    resp.set_cookie('username', '', expires=0)
    return resp

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run()
  

By using these methods, you can easily create, read, modify, and delete cookies in your Flask web application. Cookies can be a powerful tool for managing user sessions and storing user-specific data.

Thank you for reading this article on creating and managing cookies in Flask and Python. We hope you found it helpful for your web development projects!