setcookie() gives no error, but the cookie does not set - php

Question

I have a application based on CodeIgniter . I tried to set cookie in on of my controller functions. Here is the part of my code
private function login_core($username, $user_pass){
//Get value from database
$this->load->model('user_model');
if($this->user_model->init($username) == 1){
$pass = $this->user_model->getPassword();
$this->e['db_pass'] = $pass;
//Now encrypt th real password
//Make thisL
$e_p = $username. $user_pass . $this->user_model->getEmail();
$e_p = sha1($e_p);
$this->e['act_pass'] = $e_p;
//Whenever the email is changed, update the password. (Require password to change the email)
$this->load->library('encrypt');
$this->load->library('xsecurity');
//cookie not set :( . And i don't know the reason
if($pass == $e_p){
$this->xsecurity->SetInfoLocal($e_p);
setcookie('y',$this->encrypt->encode($username, $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']),60*60*24*3);
return true;
} else {
return false; //false'
}
} else {
return false;
}
}
public function login(){
if(!isset($_POST['user'], $_POST['pass'])){
$this->load->view('header');
$this->load->view('content/errorError');
$this->load->view('footer');
return false;
}
$user = $_POST['user'];
$pass = $_POST['pass'];
if(self::login_core($user, $pass)){
$d['a'] = $this->e;
$this->load->view('header', $d);
if(isset($_GET['redirect_to'])) {
ob_start();
header('location:'. $_GET['redirect_to']);
return true;
}
$data['userloggedOn'] = true;
$this->load->view('main', $data);
}
else
{
$data['userloggedOn'] = false;
$this->load->view('main', $this->e);
}
$this->load->view('footer');
}
The user points to login via a form, and to my thinking, no any headers are sent before setting cookie (for the login page).when i wrap if around setcookie, the result is true, but the cookie does not set? Why?

Answer 1

don't you need to added the current time to the expire date?
for example
setcookie("y", $unique_string, time() + (60*60*24*30), '/');