redirect with authentication?

[tinker]

Is it possible using header function to redirect using authentication?

I have tried with:

header("Location: http://mydomain.com/protected/protected.html");
header("Authorization: Basic $encodedstring");

and tried reversing order to no avail. Is this possible? What must be done? Thanks.

[visualAd]

As soon as the client encounters a location header, it requests the new page, regardlesss of the other headers. So no it is not possible.

You will need to use a PHP based authentication system to achieve this.

[visualAd]

You could authenticate then send a location header.

From PHP.NET:

<?php
  if (!isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {
   header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="My Realm"');
   header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
   echo 'Text to send if user hits Cancel button';
   exit;
  } else {
    /* check username and password here */

header("Location: http://mydomain.com/protected/protected.html");   
  }
?>

[tinker]

I seem to remember reading a browser can save authentication information for subsequent pages in the same realm. Might it be possible to authenticate first and then redirect? Thanks.