Search Results http_cookie

Overview

SYS.OWA_COOKIE is an Oracle-supplied PL/SQL package body belonging to the Oracle Web Agent (OWA) toolkit, the server-side PL/SQL infrastructure that underpins the Oracle HTTP Server and the mod_plsql gateway used throughout Oracle E-Business Suite releases 12.1.1 and 12.2.2. Its business function is to provide a programmatic interface for reading, writing, and deleting HTTP cookies within PL/SQL procedures that execute inside the EBS web tier. Cookies are the mechanism by which the EBS framework and its dependent products persist small pieces of state across stateless HTTP requests, most notably the ICX session identifiers, locale preferences, and application context markers used during an authenticated user session. The package parses the raw HTTP_COOKIE CGI environment variable supplied by the web listener, exposes individual cookie values to calling code, and constructs Set-Cookie headers for outbound responses. It is classified in ETRM as an OTHER API, reflecting that it is a general-purpose infrastructure utility rather than an application-level business interface. The package body depends on OWA_UTIL for CGI environment retrieval and argument validation, and it is referenced by one other package in the documented metadata.

Key Procedures and Functions

• INIT — Initialises the package's internal state. The body sets the private flag cookies_parsed to FALSE, ensuring that a subsequent access re-parses the inbound cookie string rather than returning stale cached values.
• SEND — Emits an HTTP Set-Cookie response header, used to create a new cookie on the client browser or to overwrite an existing one. This is the mechanism by which EBS code pushes session or preference data down to the user agent.
• GET — Retrieves the value of a single named cookie from the current request. If the cookie collection has not yet been parsed, the package parses the HTTP_COOKIE environment variable into parallel name and value arrays before returning the requested value.
• REMOVE — Deletes a named cookie by instructing the client to expire it, typically by sending a Set-Cookie header with an empty value and a past expiry date.
• GET_ALL — Returns the complete set of cookies present in the current request as a collection, allowing callers to enumerate all names and values without knowing them in advance.

The internal helper procedures visible in the body, HTTP_COOKIE2ARRAY and VALIDATE_COOKIE_VAL, perform the underlying parsing work: splitting the semicolon-delimited cookie string on = boundaries, handling cookies with no value, trimming trailing semicolons, and sanitising values through OWA_UTIL.VALIDATE_ARG to mitigate injection via malformed cookie contents.

Tables Accessed

No database tables are referenced by SYS.OWA_COOKIE. The package operates entirely in memory against CGI environment variables and PL/SQL collection types (the VC_ARR arrays declared in the specification). Consequently, no APPS synonyms, base tables, or views are involved, and the package generates no transactional database activity.

Usage Notes

SYS.OWA_COOKIE is normally invoked indirectly rather than called explicitly by application developers. The standard EBS practice is to use the higher-level APPS.ICX_COOKIE wrapper, which internally delegates to OWA_COOKIE for cookie creation, retrieval, and removal while enforcing EBS-specific naming and security conventions. Direct calls to OWA_COOKIE are found principally in custom mod_plsql handlers and JSP-based integrations that need to inspect or emit raw cookie values outside the standard session mechanism. The most directly relevant entry point to users searching on http_cookie is the internal HTTP_COOKIE2ARRAY routine, which is what actually reads and parses the HTTP_COOKIE CGI variable; it is not part of the documented public interface and should not be called from custom code. Because the package reads environment values supplied by the browser, any custom use should validate cookie contents before incorporating them into SQL or HTML output. The package is loaded into the database as part of the standard Oracle server installation and is present in both 12.1.1 and 12.2.2 environments without product-specific patching.