Redirection techniques

[tiggy]

I'm in a situation where I'd like to redirect a page, but an include file earlier in the page is keeping me from doing it via the header() function, even though the include file doesn't generate any apparent output . Heres the code for the include file:

<?
function val_pwd ( $username, $password )
{
        if (mysql_pconnect("localhost","user","pwd"))
        {
                $sql = "select * from table where handle='$username' and password=password('$password')";

            $result = mysql_db_query("db", $sql);

            $count = mysql_num_rows($result);

            if ($count == 1){ return 1; } else { return 0;}
    } 
}
?>

I've tried the javascript location thing, but I notice the page takes longer to load and I get a noticeable "flash" effect. A PHP include might be workable, but I'm worried about it creating a "hall of mirrors" effect and it will require some tedious reworking of some of my session handling.

I thought before I picked my poison I'd check to see if there are any other redirection techniques people could recommend that I haven't tried yet.

Thanks in advance,
Al

[Pepe]

Javascript redirecting works fine with me....

[asuamol]

hi
for file include problems use
require_once("fileName");
this is new in PHP4

 For redirection USE 
         header: location("filename.PHP");    

just check the PHP manual for exact syntax....

thanks for thanks

[the_Igel]

How does include keep you from using header()?

Am I missing smth?
Or you just don't want to include somewhere else?

I think header() should work OK with som previous checks, even with includes.

[tiggy]

Sorry, I should have provided more details. The error I'm getting when I try to use header() redirection seems to be as a result of my required_once (val_functions.php - the code for which appears in my earlier post) at the top of the page is:

Warning: Cannot add header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/folder/queries/val_functions.php:20) in /var/www/html/folder/queries/test2.php on line 12

Here's a condensed version of the code. Note that if I comment out the require_once and don't call the function in that code (val_pwd) there are no errors. So the standing question is why the code in val_functions.php (included in the earlier post) causes the 'already sent' header error when I attempt my header() redirect later in the code.

<?
require_once('val_functions.php');
$error = 0;
if (!strlen(trim($username)))
{
$error+=1;

}
if (!strlen(trim($password)))
{
$error+=2;
}
header("Location: http://myserver/folder/welcome.php? error=$error");

?>

Thanks again,
Al

[the_Igel]

Are you sure that there's no spaces out of <? ?> in your include?

But i recall that sometime i was in the same trouble, being absolutely sure that I have no spaces anywhere out of <? ?> and still includes pervented me from sending header(). Then I didn't find out what was the problem 🙁

[tiggy]

I found the culprit. My required_once file had an empty line at the bottom of the file (after the "?>") which evidently caused it to generate header information, causing subsequent header() calls to fail.

Thanks to everyone for the help - hopefully this caused only nominal wheel spinning on everyone's part :-)

Al

[NiXXeD]

You could also use output buffering to make sure that nothing is sent until you absolutely want it to be sent. Just ob_start(); and ob_end_flush();