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Cookies
A cookie is a tag that a web server assigns you to keep track of who you are as you browse around a site. Servers that use cookies will invisibly allocate one or more cookies to you when you first enter their site, and OmniWeb will send the cookie back to the server with every new document request. The server can then tailor the document it returns to you based on the information it has stored in the cookie.
Cookies are useful for sites that want to remember things about their users; for example, if you go to a shopping site, you can browse around and buy things, and the server will know from page to page who you are and what you have already bought. Also, many web sites allow you to customize their appearance and behavior; they use cookies to keep track of your preferences.
However, some web sites use cookies to track your movements from page to page and from site to site. Since many people consider this behavior an invasion of privacy, OmniWeb allows you to exercise fine control over which cookies you accept and which you don't. Beware, however: some sites may not behave as expected if you reject their cookies.
You can adjust how OmniWeb handles cookies in general using the Security preference pane in OmniWeb preferences. You can also set cookie preferences on a site-specific basis using Site Preferences.
The Cookie Sheet
As you browse the web, on each site you encounter that sets cookies OmniWeb will display a cookie item on the status bar that can be clicked to display a cookie sheet that lists all cookies set while browsing that particular site.
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The cookie icon on the status bar (second from the left) indicates that the current site has set cookies.
Click the icon to inspect and manage them.
The sheet that appears when you click the cookie status bar icon lists the cookies, their status, and other relevant information about the cookie including the domain it originated from. Each cookie can be selected to view its value in the bottom portion of the sheet, to change the status of the cookie using the popup menu, or to delete it using the button. The button allows you to easily delete all the cookies from the current site.
Each cookie can have one of the following statuses:
- Saved: OmniWeb will keep the cookie and return it to the server when asked. When you quit OmniWeb, the cookie will be saved (unless it has expired) so that it remains usable the next time you run OmniWeb and visit the site.
- Temporary: OmniWeb will keep the cookie and return it to the server when asked. However, the cookie won't be saved when you quit OmniWeb, so the next time you run it you'll have a clean slate.
- Rejected: OmniWeb will keep information about the cookie (allowing you to later change the status if you desire) but will not send information from the cookie back to the web server it came from.
The sheet also features a search field that can be used to filter the cookies listed based on any of the information available about the cookie.
Viewing cookies using Preferences
You can view all cookies stored by OmniWeb using the Security preferences pane in the main preferences window. Simply click the button to display a sheet listing all cookies that OmniWeb currently stores.
When viewing this sheet through Site Preferences, only those cookies set by the current site will be displayed.
Using Cookies
The easiest way to manage cookies in OmniWeb is to set the behavior you would prefer for most sites using the Security preferences found in the main application preferences window, and then for the sites where you would like to change the behavior, use the Site Preferences feature to set a custom behavior for a particular site when the need arises. You can also use the cookie item on the status bar to set behavior on a per-cookie basis for a particular site.
For example, you might want to reject all cookies by default. To do this, you would un-check Accept Cookies using the Security preferences in the main application preferences window so that the setting applies to all websites except those for which you have custom behavior set. Then, when you encounter a website that requires cookies, you can visit the Security panel in Site Preferences to enable cookies for that particular site by re-checking Accept Cookies.
You can also use the cookie icon on the status bar to change the behavior for cookies sent from the current site but this change applies only to those cookies that already appear in the list and is lost when those cookies expire — new cookies will still obey your preferences for how OmniWeb should handle cookies.