>Please explain briefly how the HTML forms and Netscape cookies can be used to store state information.

You should never use Cookies as a mechanism to store data.
instead use them (pardon the pun) as Cookies - an ID that
references something like a record in a database. As such
you're not really storing anything valuable on the client.

Fear of cookies is entirely media hype - they serve a useful
function for those sites that have to track users as they move
through it.

You can use other mechansisms such as URL 'parameters' or hidden
form variables, but it's very tedious to make sure that *every*
request on your site passes forward this cookie. If you have static
pages this may not work - you'll need some dynamic mechanism to
make this work correctly.

>Secondly, What are the advantages and disadvantages of the two methods.

Cookies are easy to use and can be transparent to the user.

Using form vars or URL Ids is very tedious, but works with any browser
and there's no way for users to refuse this type of Id. IOW, they
have no choice which is as it should be for an application such as
a Web store.

+++ Rick ---