Cookies vs Sessions with CookieStore
cookies, ruby-on-rails, ruby-on-rails-3, session
Solution
The main difference, in Rails 3, is that when you use `cookie[:foo] = 'bar'` the user is able to see the value for the cookie, i.e. `'bar'`. When you use `session[:foo] = 'bar'` the value will be encrypted by rails and stored in the `_myapp_session` cookie.
You would use the `cookie[]` format when the information you want to store is not bound to the session, e.g. when the users selects the preferred language.
You would use the `session[]` format when you want to store information that is related to the current session, e.g. the `id` of the the user.
From Rails 4 cookies became encrypted by default.
Problem
In Rails 3, what is the difference between storing data in a cookie and storing data in a session, with the session store set to the default of CookieStore? e.g. ``` cookie[:foo] = 'bar' # MyApp::Application.config.session_store :cookie_store, key: '_myapp_session' session[:foo] = 'bar' ``` As far as I can tell, both end up stored in a client-side cookie. When would you choose to use one over the other? Thanks.