Cookie Parser Session Agent

To enable easy searching, the CookieParser session agent parses cookies appearing after the HTTP_COOKIE value in the request into name-value pairs. Cookie data is placed at the bottom of the request in a section entitled [cookies]

The following is an example:


[cookies]
TLTSID=CF37A9C511D67E7F03003785F87C9647z0
TLTHID=CF37A9C511D67E7F03003785F87C9647
TLTUID=CC50ED7C11D67E1C90003B95BC7A8A27
SITESERVER=ID=3c576155747d32c21e27fa781a689ac7
TLT_NumCookies=4
TLT_CookiesBytes=165

Adding the Session Agent

Session agents can be added through the Pipeline Editor in TMS. See Adding a Session Agent.

  • For more information on the Pipeline Editor, see "TMS Pipeline Editor" in the IBM® Tealeaf cxImpact Administration Manual.

Configuration Settings

The following configuration settings are available:

  • Display Name values are displayed in TMS, which is the recommended method for configuring session agents. See "Tealeaf® Management System" in the IBM Tealeaf cxImpact Administration Manual.
  • Name values are displayed in TealeafCaptureSocket.cfg.
Table 1. Cookie Parser Session Agent
Display Name Name Description
Cookie Delimiter CookieDelimiter Delimiter used in Cookies header. The default value is ;.
Extract Extract Allows for the extraction of sub-values from a cookie value. The default value is YES.
Fragment Delimiter FragmentDelimiter Used in conjunction with the Extract option, this setting specifies cookie fragment delimiter. The default value is `.
URL Decode URLDecode Specifies if the cookie value should be URL-decoded. The default value is YES.

The remainder of this page describes configuration options and how to change them through the TealeafCaptureSocket.cfg file stored on the server. These settings are also available through the Pipeline Editor, which is the recommended method for configuring session agents.

Cookie Delimiter

The Cookie Parser allows users to denote their own cookie delimiter, which allows a wider range of cookie formats to be processed.

  • If no delimiter is provided, then the semicolon ( ; ) character is used.
  • If you use more than one character, the cookie parser uses only the first char in the string as the delimiter.
  • Avoid Using Ampersand as a Delimiter
  • To denote your own delimiter, add the following to the CookieParser section of the configuration file:
    
CookieDelimiter=<somechar>

Avoid Using Ampersand as a Delimiter

Avoid using the ampersand (&) character as a delimiter. This character is commonly used to denote fragments within a parent cookie, such as the following:


HTTP_COOKIE=TLTUID=567683546&id=1234&page=0; TLTRUID=234567;

Which would typically result in the following:


TLT_NumCookies=2
TLT_CookiesBytes=48
TLT_NumCookieFragments=2
TLT_CookieFragmentBytes=15

However, using ampersand (&) as the delimiter generates the following:


TLT_NumCookies=3
TLT_CookiesBytes=48
TLT_NumCookieFragments=0
TLT_CookieFragmentBytes=0

Note the incorrect figures above.

Tealeaf Session Agents