Codeigniter appears to always set validation->run to FALSE - codeigniter-3

Question

Controller : User.php
public function index()
{
log_message('debug', ' Index User');
die("should never get here");
}
public function login()
{
log_message('debug', ' Login Entered');
echo '<pre> Printing Login data:';
print_r($_POST);
echo "</pre>";
$data['pageHeader'] = "Login";
$data['message'] = 'temporary message - This will be the login stuff';
$this->session->set_flashdata('flashInfo', 'Login form will go here');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('username', 'Username', 'trim|required');
$this->form_validation->set_rules('password', 'Password', 'required');
if ($this->form_validation->run() === FALSE)
{
log_message('debug', ' validation run FALSE');
$this->load->helper('form');
$this->render_page('user/login', 'public_header', 'footer', $data);
}
else
{
log_message('debug', ' validation run TRUE');
$remember = (bool) $this->input->post('remember');
if ($this->ion_auth->login($this->input->post('username'), $this->input->post('password'), $remember))
{
log_message('debug', ' redirect Dashboard');
redirect('dashboard');
}
else
{
$_SESSION['auth_message'] = $this->ion_auth->errors();
$this->session->mark_as_flash('auth_message');
log_message('debug', ' redirect user login');
redirect('user/login');
}
}
}
Known from log:
function login entered,
$_POST always 'empty',
form validation-> always FALSE thus debug message is logged and form redisplayed
Form user/login.php
<?php defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');?>
<div class="container">
<?php echo $message;?>
<h1>Login</h1>
<form action="#" method="post">
<div class="imgcontainer">
<img src="http://www.hdkumdo.com/smen/assets/crow2.png" alt="Swordsmen Martial Arts">
</div>
<div class="container">
<label for="username"><b>Username</b></label>
<input type="text" placeholder="Enter Username" name="username" id="username" required autofocus>
<label for="password"><b>Password</b></label>
<input type="password" placeholder="Enter Password" name="password" id="password" required>
<button type="submit" name="login" id="login" value"login" >Login</button>
<label>
<input type="checkbox" checked="checked" name="remember" id="remember"> Remember me
</label>
</div>
<div class="container" style="background-color:#f1f1f1">
<button type="button" class="cancelbtn">Cancel</button>
<span class="psw">Forgot password?</span>
</div>
</form>
</div>
Copied an example from https://www.codeigniter.com/user_guide/libraries/form_validation.html
and form posts data but if I change function index to login it does not work.
Menu link : Login works fine.
Everything seems to be connected...login form displays, Controller function login is entered but it seems like there is no POST data so the form is simply redisplayed. I have 2 simple validation rules so it seems that validation->run should return true if I just enter any data into the fields.
I am sure it's something simple but for the life of me I can't see what.

Answer 1

First of all make sure you have loaded form validation library
$this->load->library('form_validation');
//set field validation
$this->form_validation->set_rules('fieldname','Field Name','required');
if($this->form_validation->run())
{
//then process form
//redirect
}
else {
//load view
}