save start date and end date as session variables, and use strtotime to convert to a time stamp:
<?php
@session_start();
$_SESSION['startDate'] = strtotime('2014-10-3');
$_SESSION['endDate'] = strtotime('2014-10-5');
?>
make sure that is before the security assist helper require once line.
I also had the rules a little off, do the rules as:
Restrict if:
<?php echo (strtotime(date('Y-m-d'))); ?>
<
<?php echo $_SESSION['startDate']; ?>
Allow if:
<?php echo (strtotime(date('Y-m-d'))); ?>
<
<?php echo $_SESSION['endDate']; ?>
i updated the form action code to correct a syntax error, i changed:
htmlentites
to
htmlentities