JavaScript Bible, Gold Edition part 51. This book will bring programmers and non-technical professionals, including casual programmers and scripters, painlessly up to speed on all aspects of mastering JavaScript. Key topics include programming fundamentals, JavaScript language elements and how to use them effectively, and how to easily and efficiently add powerful new functionality to HTML documents and Java applets. | 348 Part III Document Objects Reference characterSet Value String Read Write NN2 NN3 NN4 NN6 IE3 J1 IE3 J2 IE4 IE5 Compatibility The characterSet property reveals the character set used by the browser to render the current document the IE4 version of this property is called charset . You can find possible values for this property at ftp in-notes iana assignments character-sets Each browser and operating system has its own default character set. Values may also be set via a META tag. Example on the CD Related Items charset property. cookie Value String Read Write NN2 NN3 NN4 NN6 IE3 J1 IE3 J2 IE4 IE5 Compatibility The cookie mechanism in a Web browser lets you store small pieces of information on the client computer in a reasonably secure manner. In other words when you need some tidbit of information to persist at the client level while either loading diverse HTML documents or moving from one session to another the cookie mechanism saves the day. You can find Netscape s technical documentation much of which is written from the perspective of a server writing to a cookie on the Web at http newsref std . The cookie is commonly used as a means to store the username and password you enter into a password-protected Web site. The first time you enter this information into a CGI-governed form the CGI program has Navigator write the information back to a cookie on your hard disk usually after encrypting the password . Rather than bothering you to enter the username and password the next time you access the site the server searches the cookie data stored for that particular server and extracts the username and password for automatic validation processing behind the scenes. Chapter 18 The Document and Body Objects 349 Other applications of the cookie include storing user preferences and information about the user s previous visit to the site. Preferences may include font styles or sizes and whether the
