Cookie Problems

[JustJay]

I am trying to set a cookie at the time the visitor hits the page so we can display what is new since they were last there...

Here is what I have...

<? // Do we have an Agent
if (!isset($_COOKIE['id'])) {
	header ("Location: [url]http://[/url]".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']."/corporate/consultant.php");
}

// Today's date numerical values
$Today = date("Y-m-d");
// Today's date in word values
$Date = date("l, d F Y");
// Server time on page load.  Server Time is consistent with CST
$ServerTime = date("H:i");
// Calgary Time on page load
$HourDiff = "1"; // Behind CST 
$TimeAdjust = ($HourDiff *60 *60);
$LocalTime =  date("H:i", time()-$TimeAdjust); // We need to subtract Time Adjust because MST is one hour behind CST

// Do we have A Last Visted Cookie

if (!isset($_COOKIE['visit' ])) {
	setcookie ('visit', $Today);
} 

?>

There is some more stuff here - but not pertinent to this issue...

Then by each item I have this..

<?php // Set NEW based on VISIT
    if($row_NewsHeadlines['date'] == ($_COOKIE['visit'])) {
        print ("<span class=\"new\">New </span>- ");
}						
?>

However when you hit the page I get the error that visit has not been defined...

What do I need to do?

[mattsinclair]

you always must set a cookie to expire in the future, else it will expire immediately. also, you don't set a cookie using a date format, you set it using epoch time.

setcookie ('visit', time()[phone]);

to expire in a year, because 31536000 is how many seconds in a year and it's added to the number of seconds since the epoch which is time()

[JustJay]

The Value of the COOKIE is to be TODAY's DATE that is not how I am setting an EXPIRATION - in fact I want the cookie to expire when the browser closes. But the value of the cookie has to be a date to compare that date against site content dates...

Make sense?

[mattsinclair]

yeah, oops.

<? // Do we have an Agent 
if (!isset($_COOKIE['id'])) { 
    //header ("Location: don't use html here"); 
} 

// Today's date numerical values 
$Today = date("Y-m-d"); 
// Today's date in word values 
$Date = date("l, d F Y"); 
// Server time on page load.  Server Time is consistent with CST 
$ServerTime = date("H:i"); 
// Calgary Time on page load 
$HourDiff = "1"; // Behind CST 
$TimeAdjust = ($HourDiff *60 *60); 
$LocalTime =  date("H:i", time()-$TimeAdjust); // We need to subtract Time Adjust because MST is one hour behind CST 

// Do we have A Last Visted Cookie 

if (!isset($_COOKIE['visit' ])) { 
    setcookie ('visit', $Today); 
}  

print $_COOKIE['visit'];
?> 

this prints the cookie on the second load.

[JustJay]

Just needed to do this...

if (!isset($_COOKIE['visit' ])) {
	setcookie ('visit', $Today, time()+3600);
	header ("Location: url here");
}