In web applications, implementing a remember me functionality for password recovery can enhance the user experience by allowing them to stay logged in even after closing the browser. One common approach to implement this feature is by using cookies. In this blog post, we will walk through the steps to create a cookie-based remember me functionality in JavaScript.

Step 1: Checking for Remember Me Cookie

The first step is to check if a remember me cookie already exists when the user loads the password recovery page. We can do this by accessing the cookies object in JavaScript and searching for a specific cookie name.

const rememberMeCookieName = "remember_me_cookie";

function checkRememberMeCookie() {
  const cookies = document.cookie.split("; ");
  for (let i = 0; i < cookies.length; i++) {
    const cookie = cookies[i];
    if (cookie.startsWith(rememberMeCookieName)) {
      // Cookie exists, implement the desired logic here
      return;
    }
  }
  // Cookie doesn't exist, implement default logic here
}

Step 2: Creating Remember Me Cookie

If the remember me cookie does not exist, we need to create one when the user selects the remember me option and submits the password recovery form. This cookie will store the necessary information to identify the user and maintain their login status.

function createRememberMeCookie() {
  const cookieValue = "user_id=123456";
  const expiresInDays = 7; // Cookie expiration time in days

  let expiryDate = new Date();
  expiryDate.setDate(expiryDate.getDate() + expiresInDays);

  document.cookie = rememberMeCookieName + "=" + cookieValue + "; expires=" + expiryDate.toUTCString() + "; path=/";
}

Step 3: Deleting Remember Me Cookie

To implement a proper logout functionality, we should also provide users with the option to delete the remember me cookie when they choose to log out manually.

function deleteRememberMeCookie() {
  const expiryDate = new Date(0);
  document.cookie = rememberMeCookieName + "=; expires=" + expiryDate.toUTCString() + "; path=/";
}

Conclusion

By implementing a cookie-based remember me functionality in JavaScript, we can enhance the password recovery process by allowing users to stay logged in conveniently. This approach can improve the user experience and eliminate the need for repetitive login steps. Remember to handle cookie security properly and use appropriate server-side validation for sensitive operations.

#Technology #JavaScript