> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.prestashop-project.org/1-4-documentation/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.prestashop-project.org/1-4-documentation/english-documentation/developer-guide/rockys-guides/prestashop-1.4.3-development-guide/cookie-structure.md).
# Cookie Structure
PrestaShop uses [cookies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie) encrypted with [Rijndael](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mcrypt) or [Blowfish](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowfish_%28cipher%29) to store all session information for customers and employees. Separate cookies for each customer and employee are stored in the user's browser cache. PrestaShop uses `classes/Cookie.php` to read and write its cookies.
The customer cookie is read on line 94 (in PrestaShop v1.4.2) of `init.php` and the employee cookie is read on line 32 of `/admin/init.php`. To access the cookie from inside PrestaShop, add `global $cookie;` (or add `$cookie` to the list of global variables) to the top of the function in a class or at the top of a non-class file. A variable in the cookie can then be accessed or changed using `$cookie->variable`. To access the cookie from outside of PrestaShop, use code like the following:
```
include_once('path_to_prestashop/config/config.inc.php');
include_once('path_to_prestashop/config/settings.inc.php');
include_once('path_to_prestashop/classes/Cookie.php');
$cookie = new Cookie('ps');
```
Change `'ps'` to `'psAdmin'` to read the employee cookie.
## Customer Cookie
The following table contains the public variables in PrestaShop's customer cookie, which are related to the current visitor on your website:
| **Variable** | **Description** |
| ---------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **date\_add** | The date and time the cookie was created (in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format). |
| **id\_lang** | The ID of the selected language. |
| **id\_currency** | The ID of the selected currency. |
| **last\_visited\_category** | The ID of the last visited category of product listings. |
| **ajax\_blockcart\_display** | Whether the cart block is "expanded" or "collapsed". |
| V**iewed** | The IDs of recently viewed products as a comma-separated list. |
| **id\_wishlist** | The ID of the current wishlist displayed in the wishlist block. |
| **checkedTOS** | Whether the "Terms of service" checkbox has been ticked (1 if it has and 0 if it hasn't) |
| **id\_guest** | The guest ID of the visitor when not logged in. |
| **id\_connections** | The connection ID of the visitor's current session. |
| **id\_customer** | The customer ID of the visitor when logged in. |
| **customer\_lastname** | The last name of the customer. |
| **customer\_firstname** | The first name of the customer. |
| **logged** | Whether the customer is logged in. |
| **passwd** | The MD5 hash of the \_COOKIE\_KEY\_ in config/settings.inc.php and the password the customer used to log in. |
| **email** | The email address that the customer used to log in. |
| **id\_cart** | The ID of the current cart displayed in the cart block. |
| **checksum** | The Blowfish checksum used to determine whether the cookie has been modified by a third party.
The customer will be logged out and the cookie deleted if the checksum doesn't match.
|
There are also variables for product customisation. For example, `pictures_1` contains the filenames of the images the customer has uploaded to product 1 (in the upload directory) and `textfields_1` contains the text the customer has uploaded to product 1. Use the following code to get the customisation files and textfields of product 1:
```
$files = $cookie->getFamily('pictures_1');
$textFields = $cookie->getFamily('textFields_1');
```
## Employee Cookie
The following table contains the public variables in PrestaShop's employee cookie, which relates to the employee who is currently logged in to the Back Office:
| **Variable** | **Description** |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| **date\_add** | The date and time the cookie was created (in YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS format). |
| **id\_lang** | The ID of the selected language. |
| **id\_employee** | The ID of the employee. |
| **lastname** | The last name of the employee. |
| **firstname** | The first name of the employee. |
| **email** | The email address the employee used to log in. |
| **profile** | The ID of the profile that determines which tabs the employee can access. |
| **passwd** | The MD5 hash of the \_COOKIE\_KEY\_ in config/settings.inc.php and the password the employee used to log in. |
| **checksum** | The Blowfish checksum used to determine whether the cookie has been modified by a third party.
The customer will be logged out and the cookie deleted if the checksum doesn't match.
|
There are also pagination and filter variables stored in the employee cookie so that the state of the tables is saved. For example, the `order_pagination` variable stores how many orders are displayed per page and `orderFilter_id_order` stores the filter applied to the `id_order` column of the orders table.
## Private Variables
These private cookie variables cannot be accessed directly like the public variables above.
| **Variable** | **Description** |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **\_name** | The unique name of the cookie (the MD5 hash of "ps" for customer cookie or "psAdmin" for employee cookie and \_COOKIE\_KEY\_ in config/settings.inc.php). |
| **\_expire** | The expiry date of the cookie. It can be changed using the setExpire function in classes/Cookie.php. By default, PrestaShop cookies expire after 1728000 seconds (or 20 days). This can be changed on line 65 (in PrestaShop v1.4.2) of classes/Cookie.php. |
| **\_domain** | The domain name of the website where the cookie was created. For example, yoursite.com. |
| **\_path** | The path of the website where the cookie was created. For example, /prestashop/. |
| **\_bf** | The Blowfish instance used to encrypt and decrypt the cookie. |
| **\_key** | The encrypted cookie key that is used by Blowfish to decrypt the cookie. |
| **\_iv** | The encrypted cookie iv that is used by Blowfish to decrypt the cookie. |