Sending PHP headers with HTML

Anon

I need to use a PHP script in which the header function is used. I know that PHP scripts are supposed to be embedded in a HTML page, but when I load the HTML file I get the error that headers have already been loaded. Are scripts with header functions supposed to be loaded separately (not embedded in HTML), or am I approaching PHP completely wrong here?

Thank you

[deleted]

There is only one rule for headers:
You cannot print anything before sending the headers.

This means you can't send headers from somewhere in the middle of an html page.
You'll have to make a seperate piece of code at the top of the page that sends any headers if required.

There are a number of ways of preventing anything from being printed untill the headers are sent, but sending them from the top of the script is usually the clearest way.
Besides, headers are quite often used to redirect the client to another page. What use is it to print a half a page, only to find out that the user should be redirected to somewhere else? :-)

ame12

Vincents explanation is correct. The order should be something like this:

<?php
if (somecondition) {
header("location: /otherpage.php");
}
?>
<body>
blah... blah.. blah...
</body>

once you output any html you are not permitted to call the header function.

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Anon

The header I need is not used for redirecting (here it is : header ("Content-type: multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=$end"); ). It is used for the following script, that uses Netscape's server push technology to put dynamic text on the screen:

<?php

$loop = 0;
$end = "Finish"; // random string
// header has to be loaded
print ("--$end\n"); //start data
while ($loop<200)
{
print ("Content-type: text/plain\n\n"); //define data type
echo ("Test number $loop"); //data output
$loop++;
if ($loop==200)
print ("\n--$end--\n");//end of data
else
print ("\n--$end\n"); //start data
flush (); //clear buffer
}

?>

Once I can get this script to work in a HTML file, I can adapt it to put anything on the page using server push. I want the text to appear in the middle of a webpage, so I think embedding it in HTML is the only option?

Anon

With your help, my script now looks something like this (test.php) :

<?php header ("Content-type: multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=$end"); ?>
<BODY>
<h1>Testline top</h1>
<?php

$loop = 0;
$end = "Finish"; // random string
print ("--$end\n"); //start data
while ($loop<100)
{
print ("Content-type: text/plain\n\n"); //define data type
echo ("Test number $loop"); //data output
$loop++;
if ($loop==100)
print ("\n--$end--\n");//end of data
else
print ("\n--$end\n"); //start data
flush (); //clear buffer
}

?>
<h1>Testline bottom</h1>
</BODY>

I can see the browser executes the loop, but I get no output at all (not even the Testlines). Do I have to use other functions instead of echo and print, or did I misinterpret your advice?

Thanks in advance.

scautura

Your code is almost correct, but for one thing:
You're trying to use $end before it is defined, in the first line:

<?php header ("Content-type: multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=$end"); ?>

Change this a little, and make it like so (I've split the lines a little to make it more readable)

<?php
$end="Finish"
header("Content-type: multipart/x-mixed-replace;boundary=$end");
?>

You can then remove where you set $end later in the script, so as not to redefine it.
This code is fine, as you won't be outputting any text before the header function (As long as there are no spaces above the PHP open <?php )

Hopefully, this will do the job as required, if not, I don't know the server, so I would suggest going to someone else for that as it no longer seems to be a PHP problem. 🙂#

Scautura

Anon

Thanks, the script finally works. The only problem remaining are the Testlines : I get the output from the PHP script, but the text between <h1> and </h1> is not displayed. Do I have to include all output inside the PHP script if I want it on the webpage? If I rename the page with the .html extension, I get nothing but the testlines (which seems normal to me), but when I call it test.php, it shows only the PHP output. This doesn't sound logical to me (it would mean you no longer need HTML with PHP since you would have to generate all output from within the script).

To be complete : I'm using Apache 1.3.19 under Win98 with the PHP 4.0.4 module installed.

Thanks to everyone for helping me with this script!