How do I display the user cookie information through PHP?

[royli57]

I want to write a custom login box for my homepage. Using the navbar template, I think I can finish the login part of it. I just need to submit to the login.php using a form.



The tricky part is emulating the information once the user is logged in. I want to use PHP to find the information set by the cookie. When you log into the standard forums, the login box contains this information:

Welcome, royli57.

You last visited: Today at 05:15 PM

Private Messages: 0 Unread, Total 0.

So I want to display these variables using PHP. The problem is that the variables are given as

$vbphrase[welcome_x]

$vbphrase[last_visited_x_at_y]

$vbphrase[private_messages_nav]

Within the navbar template. Is there a way I can use these variables directly? If not is there a way I can access the cookie and return the information from there?



Thanks



Roy