How to clear cookies using asp.net mvc 3 and c #?

Question

Good, so I really think I'm doing it right, but cookies are not cleared.

Session.Clear(); HttpCookie c = Request.Cookies["MyCookie"]; if (c != null) { c = new HttpCookie("MyCookie"); c["AT"] = null; c.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1); Request.Cookies.Add(c); } return RedirectToAction("Index", "Home"); 

When the redirect occurs, it finds the cookie again and moves on, as if I had never logged out. Any thoughts?

Answer 1

You're close You will need to use the Response object to write to the browser:

 if ( Request.Cookies["MyCookie"] != null ) { var c = new HttpCookie( "MyCookie" ); c.Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays( -1 ); Response.Cookies.Add( c ); } 

Learn more about MSDN, How to remove a cookie .

Answer 2

Cookies are stored on the client, not on the server, so Session.Clear will not affect them. In addition, Request.Cookies is populated by IIS and transferred to your page with each request per page; adding / removing cookies from this collection does nothing.

Try a similar action with Response.Cookies. This should force your client to overwrite the old cookie with the new one, which will lead to its expiration.

Answer 3

I did this and it worked to clear (not delete) the session cookie:

 HttpContext.Response.Cookies.Set(new HttpCookie("cookie_name"){Value = string.Empty}); 

Based on Metro's answer, I created this extension method to make the code reusable on any controller.

 /// <summary> /// Deletes a cookie with specified name /// </summary> /// <param name="controller">extends the controller</param> /// <param name="cookieName">cookie name</param> public static void DeleteCookie(this Controller controller, string cookieName) { if (controller.HttpContext.Request.Cookies[cookieName] == null) return; //cookie doesn't exist var c = new HttpCookie(cookieName) { Expires = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-1) }; controller.HttpContext.Response.Cookies.Add(c); }