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how to import a cookie from Internet Explorer

A number of websites require entering of a username or password through a customized form in order to access the content of the website. As of the time of this writing, iSiloX does not have the ability to automatically log a user in if it encounters such a customized form. However, in many cases, the website also has the option of automatically logging you in each time you visit the website from the same computer without you needing to re-enter either your username or password. Such websites accomplish this by storing information in your browser's cookie store. A cookie is basically a piece of information that has an associated name, value, and website where it is to be used. When you use your browser to revisit the website from where the cookie was sent, your browser sends back the cookie information that was given to it from the website. This allows the website to automatically identify you without you needing to enter your username and password.

iSiloX has the ability to send cookies. So for the above purpose, it is useful to be able to obtain the specific cookie information from your browser for the corresponding website and add it to the cookie list of the document conversion entry you created in iSiloX for conversion of that website.

This tutorial shows how to obtain a cookie's information from Internet Explorer 5.5 on Windows Millenium. The same concepts apply to other versions of Internet Explorer and other browsers and operating systems, but you may need to consult the documentation for your specific system for more details.

To follow this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of how to use iSiloX.


getting the cookie from Internet Explorer
  1. In Internet Explorer, click the Internet Options command in the Tools menu to get the Internet Options dialog shown here:

  2. In the Internet Options dialog, click the General tab, then click Settings on the General tab page to get the Settings dialog shown here:


  3. In the Settings dialog, click View Files to get the Temporary Internet Files listing shown here:


  4. Click the Internet Address column header to sort the listing so that all the entries with an address beginning with "Cookie:" are grouped together. For each cookie entry, the part of the address that follows the @ character is the domain name of the website to which the cookie is sent whenever you visit that website.

    If you do not see any entries that begin with "Cookie:", Internet Explorer may have too many files cached, so you will first need to click Delete Files in the Internet Options dialog that was shown in the first step above.

  5. Scroll through the entries to find the cookie entry that has the domain name of the website for which you want to get the cookie. Double-click the entry to access the cookie information. You may get the following warning, to which you can click Yes:


  6. The cookie information opens in Notepad as shown here:


  7. The cookie information will be different depending on which cookie you select to view. However, the way in which the cookie information is displayed within Notepad makes it difficult to understand, so let's copy the information to WordPad. In the Edit menu of Notepad, click Select All. Then click Copy in the Edit menu.
  8. Now start WordPad, which you should be able to do by going to the Start menu and then selecting Programs/Accessories/WordPad. In WordPad's Edit menu, click Paste. The cookie information should then appear in WordPad, similar to the following:



how to import a cookie from Internet Explorer
  1. In iSiloX go to the Properties dialog for the entry to which you want to add the cookie by right-clicking the entry and clicking Properties.
  2. In the Properties dialog, click the Cookies tab to get the cookie properties for the entry as shown here:

  3. For a website that requires cookies, you generally want cookies to be both sent and retrieved, so check both the Send cookies option and the Receive cookies option on the Cookies tab page.
  4. On the Cookies tab page, click Add Cookie to get the Add/Edit Cookie dialog so that you can enter the cookie information obtained from Internet Explorer.
  5. In the WordPad window, the first three lines of the data you copied contain the information you need to copy to the Add/Edit Cookie dialog. The first line is the name of the cookie. The second line is the value of the cookie. The third line contains the domain and path to which the cookie applies and requires a little further explanation. The part before the first slash is the domain name. When you enter the domain name into the corresponding field in the Add/Edit Cookie dialog, you should add a period before the domain name so that it matches full domain names ending with that domain name. The part from the first slash forward is the path. In this example, the path consists only of a single slash, but it is possible for it to be longer (e.g., /handhelds/OnTheWeb). After copying the lines into the respective fields of the Add/Edit Cookie dialog, the dialog should look like the following:

  6. One other thing you should do is select the Never option for the Expires option so that the cookie remains active indefinitely.
  7. Click OK to add the new cookie to the list. The Cookies tab page should now list your new cookie as shown here:

  8. Click OK to accept the changes you have made to the properties for the entry.
A given website may store more than one cookie on your system, so you may need to add more than one cookie in order for the conversion to work. If so, just repeat the above steps for each cookie.
Congratulations on having added a cookie from Internet Explorer to an entry in iSiloX.
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