Method, system, and computer program product for sharing information between hypertext markup language (HTML) forms using a cookie

1. A method for automatically populating a plurality of input elements of a form in a web browser, comprising:

providing a single cookie containing a plurality of name-value pairs, wherein, for each of the plurality of input elements of the form:

determining if the input element of the form contains a shared form variable indicating that the input element is enabled for automatic populating, wherein the shared form variable includes a name attribute and a keyword indicative of a shared form variable; and

automatically populating the input element of the form using a value in a corresponding one of the plurality of name-value pairs in the cookie if the name attribute of the shared form variable corresponds to one of the plurality of name-value pairs in the cookie;

sharing the cookie across a plurality of application servers having a common domain name system (DNS) suffix, wherein the cookie can be applied to forms originating from any of the plurality of application servers;

wherein each of the plurality of input elements containing a shared form variable includes the same keyword, and wherein the form and the cookie are received by the web browser from an application server.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, for each of the plurality of input elements of the form:

entering a value into the input element of the form if the name attribute of the shared form variable does not correspond to one of the plurality of name-value pairs in the cookie.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

repeating the method for each input element in the form to provide a completed form.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:

submitting the completed form to an application server.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising, at the application server:

for each value entered into an input element of the completed form:

generating a name-value pair comprising the name attribute of the input element and the entered value; and

updating the cookie by populating the cookie with the generated name-value pair.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising:

sending the cookie to the web browser.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the form comprises a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) form.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cookie comprises a HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) cookie.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the variable comprises a hidden form element.