InnoSetup - Is there any way to manually create cookie for Internet explorer?

Question

Basically IE remember for site www.stackoverflow.com using JavaScript cookies but is there anyway manually to create a same cookie within InnoSetup on behalf of stackoverflow.com?

Javascript cookie:

function setCookie(cname,cvalue,exdays) {
  var d = new Date();
  d.setTime(d.getTime()+(exdays*24*60*60*1000));
  var expires = "expires="+d.toGMTString();
  document.cookie = cname + "=" + cvalue + "; " + expires;
}
function getCookie(cname) {
  var name = cname + "=";
  var ca = document.cookie.split(';');
  for(var i=0; i<ca.length; i++)  {
    var c = ca[i].trim();
    if (c.indexOf(name)==0) return c.substring(name.length,c.length);
  }
  return "";
}

function checkCookie(user) {
  var user=getCookie("username");
  if (user!="") {
    alert("Welcome again " + user);
  } else  {
    user='bandwidth - set to off for example';
    setCookie("username",user,30);  
  }
}

NOTE: because there is no way to detect from IE if my plugin is installed or not. I came to a mind set that i must have to deal with cookies. But instead of IE my plugin has to create that cookie for the first time installation.

EDIT: Reference

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa385107%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

Answer 1

To create a cookie associated with the specified URL you can use the InternetSetCookie function. For retrieving a cookie for the specified URL you can use InternetGetCookie function. Here's their translation with an example showing how to create and read a cookie (real code implementation talking about error messages, or wrapper functions I'd keep upon you; take this code as an example, showing how to use those API functions):

[Setup]
AppName=My Program
AppVersion=1.5
DefaultDirName={pf}\My Program

[Code]
#ifdef UNICODE
  #define AW "W"
#else
  #define AW "A"
#endif

const
  ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER = 122;
  ERROR_NO_MORE_ITEMS = 259;

function InternetSetCookie(lpszUrl: string; lpszCookieName: string;
  lpszCookieData: string): BOOL;
  external 'InternetSetCookie{#AW}@wininet.dll stdcall';
function InternetGetCookie(lpszUrl: string; lpszCookieName: string;
  lpszCookieData: string; var lpdwSize: DWORD): BOOL;
  external 'InternetGetCookie{#AW}@wininet.dll stdcall';

function TryCreateCookie(const URL, Name, Data: string): Boolean;
begin
  // try to create a specified cookie
  Result := InternetSetCookie(URL, Name, Data);
  // if the function call failed, we can optionally report the reason why
  if not Result then
    MsgBox('Cookie creation failed!' + #13#10 +
      SysErrorMessage(DLLGetLastError), mbError, MB_OK);
end;

function TryRetrieveCookie(const URL, Name: string; out Data: string): Boolean;
var
  S: string;
  BufferSize: DWORD;
begin
  // initialize function result
  Result := False;
  // initialize buffer size to 0 to query needed buffer size 
  BufferSize := 0;
  // first call is to determine whether there's a requested cookie, or if so,
  // to retrieve the needed buffer size
  if not InternetGetCookie(URL, Name, #0, BufferSize) then
  begin
    // the function failed as expected, so let's inspect the reason
    case DLLGetLastError of
      // if the reason for failure was the insufficient buffer, it means that
      // there's a cookie matching the request and that we have just received
      // the required buffer size
      ERROR_INSUFFICIENT_BUFFER:
      begin
        // initialize buffer size by the previously returned size
        SetLength(S, BufferSize div SizeOf(Char));
        BufferSize := Length(S);
        // and call the function again, now with the initialized buffer; this
        // time it should succeed; if it is so, then...
        if InternetGetCookie(URL, Name, S, BufferSize) then
        begin
          // everything went fine, so let's return success state and assign a
          // retrieved value to the output parameter
          Result := True;
          Data := S;
        end
        else
          // the second function call failed; that should not happen...
          MsgBox('Cookie retrieval failed!' + #13#10 +
            SysErrorMessage(DLLGetLastError), mbError, MB_OK);
      end;
      // this code is returned when there's no cookie found
      ERROR_NO_MORE_ITEMS:
      begin
        // no cookie matching the criteria was found; the return value of this
        // function has already been initialized to False but it's upon you to
        // react on this fact somehow, if needed
      end;
    else
      // the first function call failed for unexpected reason
      MsgBox('Cookie search failed!' + #13#10 +
        SysErrorMessage(DLLGetLastError), mbError, MB_OK);
    end;
  end;    
end;

procedure InitializeWizard;
var
  CookieData: string;
begin  
  // try to create cookie
  TryCreateCookie('http://example.com', 'MyCookie',
    'TestData=1234; expires=Wed,31-Dec-2014 23:59:59 GMT');
  // try to retrieve cookie
  if TryRetrieveCookie('http://example.com', 'MyCookie', CookieData) then
    MsgBox(CookieData, mbInformation, MB_OK);
end;