Trying to set a cookie based on $_POST parameter

Question

I'm doing a bit of language detection that first checks the $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE']. If the user wants to override the choice of language, there's a select list, where they can choose whatever language they prefer.

SO: I need to check first if the $_POST superglobal contains a value from the select list. If it does I want to set a cookie. If there's no $_POST value set then I check for a cookie and if there's no cookie I'll go ahead and use the $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'] as the default language.

The code looks like this:

function rps_set_language_preferences() {

  global $language;

  if( isset( $_POST['sprak'] ) ) {

    $possible_langs = array( 'en', 'de', 'ko' );

    $my_cookie = $_POST['sprak'];

    if( in_array( $my_cookie, $possible_langs ) ) {

      setcookie( 'sprak', $my_cookie, time() + 60*60*24*365, COOKIEPATH, COOKIE_DOMAIN );

      $language = $my_cookie;

    }

  } else {

    if( isset( $_COOKIE['sprak'] ) ) {

      $language = $_COOKIE['sprak'];

    } else {

      /* This function checks the $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'] */
      $language = rps_detectlanguage();

    }

  }

}
add_action( 'wp', 'rps_set_language_preferences' );

But... It doesn't work!

If I try to set a cookie by hooking into 'wp' I need to refresh my screen twice before the cookie appears. I guess it's not being set in time, but I don't know how to make sure that it will be!

Any advice?

Answer 1

I've been able to set cookies properly at both the template_redirect and init action hooks. You might try using one of those instead.