Cookies redirect

ramsfield

I have the following code in my "top_nav.php" page. This top nav is included on all pages in the website.

<?php if (isset($_COOKIE['masondisclaimer']) && $_COOKIE['masondisclaimer'] == 'yes') 
header("what to put here");
else
{
  header("Location: /disclaimer.php");
  exit;
}
?>

On each page I have

<?php include('../nav2/top_nav.php'); ?>

(or some variation of)

I receive the following error

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /var/www/html/probation/index.php:12) in /var/www/html/nav2/top_nav.php on line 2

How can I fix this? What I am trying to do is check for the cookie on each page, if it exists then allow the user to view the page normally. If it does not exist then redirect them back to the disclaimer page.

ZibingsCoder

Well, not sure if this'll help you too much, but if you just change your logic slightly, you might have an easier time. Instead of attempting to change the header this way or that if they have the cookie, why not try and only redirect them if they -don't- have the cookie.

if ( !isset($_COOKIE['masondisclaimer'])
  || $_COOKIE['masondisclaimer'] != "yes" )
{
   header ( "Location: disclaimer.php" );
   exit;
}

//otherwise, the page just executes

Hope this helps.

drew010

the reason you get that error is because data has already been output to the user's browser before you send the header. all headers must be sent before anything is output. make sure you have no html, or even any whitespace sent to the user up to the point where you do the cookie check. that should be the first thing done on the page.

ramsfield

Drew010 - thanks for the info. I have a question....

So from what your saying, I can accomplish this the way it is currently structured because the header has to appear before the HTML tag and can not be included in the body.

Is there a way to call the header at the top of the page, store that info as a variable and then call the variable in the body or ?

Any ideas how to make this work in the current page structure. If all else fails, I will just include an include to a "cookie.php" and insert this at the top of all the pages

Thanks

drew010

you can use cookie variables anywhere in the script, you just cannot send headers after html output.

//invalid
<html>
<head>
  <title>My Page</title>
  <meta......></meta>
</head>
<body>

<?php
if ($_COOKIE['masondisclaimer'] != "yes") {
    header("Location: /disclaimer.php");
    exit;
}
?>
//more html

//valid

<?php
if ($_COOKIE['masondisclaimer'] != "yes") {
    header("Location: /disclaimer.php");
    exit;
}
?>

<html>
<head>
  <title>My Page</title>
  <meta......></meta>
</head>
<body>
  Hello <?php echo $_COOKIE['name']; ?>,...

all you need to do is have your cookie check before anything else so you are still able to send headers to the user's browser.