HTML5 Local Storage vs. Cookies?

[Thesealion]

So after looking at Local Storage for the first time...why would one ever use cookies? What is are the pluses and minuses of Local Storage Vs. Cookies?

[Peter]

Cookies do serve some purpose still, because they can be read server side, whereas localStorage is client side.

For ProBoards plugins, it makes no sense to use cookies, because they are sent in every HTTP header where the server is not interacting with them, so it's a waste of resources.

Cookie limit is much lower than localStorage. Cookies allow around 4k, but localStorage is 5MB. Big difference.

There is no expiration for localStorage, unlike cookies. Only time it's gone, is if you remove it client side, or clear your cache.

Only downside to localStorage, is what browsers support it. Unfortunately we are still supporting IE7, which has no support, however userData can be used.

[Thesealion]

Where can i read up on userData?

[Peter]

msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms531424%28v=VS.85%29.aspx

[The Dark Knight]

Just in case someone is looking at reading up on HTML5 Local Storage, here's some good stuff.