Cannot modify header information- Refresh

risonav

I am trying to build an e-commerce store with osCommerce. I recently ran into a problem where in order for my order_confirmation page to work, I had to refresh the page.

I ended up adding a code to make the refresh happen and now it works great:

<?php
// refresh / re-direct without delay
// ---------------------------------
header
( 'location:https://host13.ipowerweb.com/~risonavc/catalog/checkout_confirmation.php' );
?>

The only problem is that I now get the error:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/risonavc/public_html/catalog/checkout_confirmation.php:88) in /home/risonavc/public_html/catalog/checkout_confirmation.php on line 94

Anyone know what is wrong?

Thank so much!

dalecosp

Well, yeah, I think so.

You can't call header() if there has been ANY output of any kind to the browser... that line should be above #94...

HTH,

risonav

Thank you so much for your reply! I really appreciate the help.

I moved the code and now it takes FOREVER to try to load the checkout_confirmation page (I am on a dsl connection too). It simply won't load.

Hmmm... maybe I am doing the wrong thing. I am so new at this... 😕

dalecosp

Well, I see an obvious danger loading a page that's basically coded like this....

header("location: $PHP_SELF");

GilesGuthrie

Whenever I want to do this, I fire some Javascript at the browser, like this:

function dobounce($time)
{
echo "<script language=\"javascript\">\n";
echo "<!--\n";
echo "setTimeout(\"window.location.href('front.php')\",".$time.");\n-->\n</script>";
}

Then you can call the function dobounce() from anywhere in the code, passing the bounce delay in milliseconds. I use this in one page where there are several conditions, and the page needs to wait a certain time before bouncing.

HTH

risonav

Then is there any other way to get the page to refresh by itself so my payment module will work? Without the refresh it won't for some reason...

risonav

Thanks Giles.

I might just have to give that a try. This whole thing is a bit over my head, but I am learning 🙂

risonav

I also had tried a meta tage code

<META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT="0; URL=https://host13.ipowerweb.com/~risonavc/catalog/order_confirmation.php"> ?

but it kept refreshing again and again.

I just need it to do it once or I need a way for my page to work without the refreshing.

Thanks everyone for your help.

dalecosp

Well, sounds like something's fishy, requiring you to do the refresh. But since you want to, how 'bout setting some GET var in the header and only calling the header if the GET var isn't there...?

risonav

I feel so stupid, but I don't know what that is. I guess I'll just do a bit more reading and try to figure it out.

I think the refresh thing is stupid, but it is the only way I can get it to pass on the information.

Basically what was happening was when the "confirm order" button was pushed it went directly to www.paypal.com (homepage) and not the correct paypal payments page. But, if I clicked "refresh" before I clicked the "confirm order" button it would go directly to the paypal payments page with all the correct information.

For some reason the information from my shopping cart is not passed on to PayPal unless it is refreshed. Maybe I can figure out why this is not happening so I don't even have to use the refresh code. That would be what I ultimately would want, but it seems PayPal and osCommerce can't (or won't) help me.