[Resolved] Location Headers

[jcdrake]

A while back I manipulated Lane & William's "winestore" example. It worked great; people could perform searches on any or all fields, then submit orders to borrow items. That was PHP 3 and MySQL 3. I recently upgraded to PHP 4.3.10 and MySQL 4.0.22.

My main search page still works fine. However, if you click any of the Submit buttons, the 'redirect.php' page isn't working properly -- it retains the SessionID, but it's leaving "redirect.php" in the URL instead of the page it's supposed to go to. For example, it goes to
http://example.com/redirect.php?PHPSESSID=(snip)&subject=Math&grade=4
instead of
http://example.com/search.php?PHPSESSID=(snip)&subject=Math&grade=4

Here's what I think is the relevant code:

On search.php:
echo "<form action=\"redirect.php?\" method=\"GET\">\n";

and on redirect.php:

<?php
   // (snip)
   session_start();

   if (!empty($parameters["search"]))
   {
      header("Location: search.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}");
      exit();
   }

   echo "Please visit again shortly.";
?>

Is this a no-brainer for those of you who know what you're doing, or am I going to have to re-do this whole thing from scratch?

Thanks!

[bradgrafelman]

How is $parameters being populated? Show us the code for that.

Also, RFC standards require you to use absolute URI's in your location headers (i.e. "/index.html" => "http://example.com/index.html").

[jcdrake]

I'm assuming it's from this, on the search.php page:

<?php
//(snip)
   // Build the query using the search criteria
   $query = setupQuery($grade, $subject, $category, $type);

   // This is used to encode the search parameters for embedding
   // in links to other pages of results
   $browseString = "subject=" . urlencode($subject) .  

                   "&amp;grade=" . urlencode($grade) .
                   "&amp;category=" . urlencode($category) .
                  "&amp;type=" . urlencode($type);

   $scriptName = "search.php";

//(snip... there's one of the below for each field)
echo "Choose a type:";

   // Produce a select list of types
   selectDistinct($connection,
                  "main",
                  "type",
                  "All",
                  $_GET['type']);

   // Show the user the search screen button
   echo "<input type=\"submit\" name=\"search\" value=\"Search\">\n";
?>

I added the absolute URI's but still no luck.

[bradgrafelman]

No... I want to know how $parameters is being set. Where's the function that sets this variable?

[jcdrake]

This is on the redirect.php page, just below the session start line:

<?php
   // Clean up the data, and save the results in
   // an array
   foreach($_GET as $varname => $value)
           $parameters[$varname] = clean($value, 10);
?>

[jcdrake]

Okay, I've read and tried a million things and have gotten nowhere. When you select the search criteria from the drop-down and click the Search button, it saves all the proper variables and session info in the URL, but leaves "redirect.php" instead of swapping in the proper page, such as "search.php". If I replace "redirect" with "search" on the address bar, the results appear in the browser. Otherwise, I just get the error message from the bottom of the redirect page.

I am pretty sure my problem lies in the "foreach" part on the redirect page -- can anyone tell what I'm doing wrong?

from search.php:

  // Show the user their search
   showItems($query, $connection, $offset, $scriptName, $browseString);

   echo "<form action=\"redirect.php?\" method=\"GET\"> ";

//(snipped code to get search variables)

   // Show the user the search screen button
   echo "<input type=\"submit\" name=\"search\" value=\"Search\">";

from redirect.php:

   include 'include.php';

   set_error_handler("errorHandler");

   session_start();

   // Clean up the data, and save the results in an array
   foreach($_GET as $varname => $value)
           $parameters[$varname] = clean($value, 10);

// Did they want to filter data?
   if (!empty($_GET["parameters"]["search"]))
   {
      // Redirect the browser to the search input page
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
      header("Location: http://example.com/search.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}");
      exit;
   }

   // They got here without providing an option, so
   // there is a problem
   echo "You arrived here unexpectedly.";

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[bradgrafelman]

Can we have a link to this script?

[jcdrake]

The site is at http://straittalk.com/sd47/search.php -- but are you asking to see the code itself?

[bradgrafelman]

Reading over your script, I belive I found the error:

    // Did they want to filter data? 
   if (!empty($_GET["parameters"]["search"])) 
   { 

$_GET[] is not a multidimensional array. Where is the "parameters" index coming from? Try just:

    // Did they want to filter data? 
   if (!empty($_GET["search"])) 
   { 

as that will look for the "search" key in the query string.

[jcdrake]

Didn't work -- now it returns a totally blank page (still getting the right info in the address bar, except for the page name) and doesn't even echo the error message.

The only place the script mentions parameters is in that "foreach" line. So that must be my problem? It's frustrating because it worked fine on the older apache server (running PHP3 & MySQL3).

I recently added a PHPBB and it works fine... any chance it could be creating a conflict?

[bradgrafelman]

Nope. Your old server probably had register_globals or some setting turned on.

Repost your code, and let me take a fresh look at it.

Also, when I tried to search, I received a message that the search was temp. disabled. Any chance you can enable it for me (or give me the page that YOU use to test your script) so I can try it and see the results we're getting?

[jcdrake]

Did you get the “We're experiencing a temporary scripting error” message when you tried to search? That’s the very last echo statement on the redirect.php page.

I’m using Dreamweaver to edit the script and just keep uploading to the site every time I make changes. So you’re seeing what I’m seeing. Is there a better way? (I couldn’t get my testing server to work.)

None of the form Submit buttons are working – same problem with all of them – but I’ll just focus on the “Search” one here. Here’s (I think) the relevant code:

from the search.php page…

   echo "<form action=\"redirect.php?\" method=\"GET\">\n";

   echo "Choose a subject: ";
   // Produce a select list of subjects 
   //(there’s one of these for each of the searchable fields)
   selectDistinct($connection,
                  "main",
                  "subject",
                  "All",
                  $_GET['subject']);

   // Show the user the search screen button
   echo "<input type=\"submit\" name=\"search\" value=\"Search\">";

and from the redirect.php page…

   include 'include.php';

   set_error_handler("errorHandler");

   session_start();

   // Clean up the data, and save the results in an array
   foreach($_GET as $varname => $value)
           $parameters[$varname] = clean($value, 10);

   // Did they want to finalise the purchase? (one of these for each submit button)
      if (!empty($_GET["parameters"]["search"]))
   {
      // Redirect the browser to the search input page
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
      header("Location: http://www.straittalk.com/sd47/search.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}");
      exit;
   }

   // They got here without providing an option, so there is a problem
   echo "We're experiencing a temporary scripting error.";

The only place “parameters” are set is in that “foreach” statement.
Neither Brad’s suggestion
if (!empty($_GET["search"]))

{

nor the original script
if (!empty($parameters["search"]))

{
return any results – in fact, those return a completely blank browser window (instead of that hopeful Echo statement at the bottom of the redirect page.) However, the URL is always the same, with all the proper search string added -- just the wrong filename ("redirect" instead of "search".)

[cretaceous]

I could be way off here but it looks like a problem I had after an upgrade where expected variables aren't being "got"

try this at the top of the page:
extract($_REQUEST);

which more or less turns globals back on -
if that fixes it you need to explicitly get or request your expected vars

[bradgrafelman]

Um... don't use the extract() command. That would be if you wanted to use variables such as "$search" to get the '?search=' parameter from the URL. We don't want that; big security risk and besides, we're already using the $_GET[] superglobal.

Let's try this; replace this:

      if (!empty($_GET["parameters"]["search"])) 
   { 
      // Redirect the browser to the search input page 
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:" 
      header("Location: [url]http://www.straittalk.com/sd47/search.php?[/url]{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}"); 
      exit; 
   } 

with this:

      if (!empty($_GET["search"])) 
   { 
      // Redirect the browser to the search input page 
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:" 
      header("Location: [url]http://www.straittalk.com/sd47/search.php?[/url]{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}"); 
      exit; 
   } else {
      echo 'No parameters. Dumping array:<br><br><pre>';
      print_r($_REQUEST);
      echo '</pre>';
      exit;
   }

EDIT: Also, once you make the change, post the URL or output, as I'd like to see what's set and what isn't.

[jcdrake]

Okay, I made the change... it's still returning a blank browser window if you try to do a search from the search.php page, but if I go directly to the redirect.php page it returns this:

No parameters. Dumping array:

Array
(
[phpbb2mysql_data] => a:2:{s:11:\"autologinid\";s:0:\"\";s:6:\"userid\";s:1:\"2\";}
)

(One of the first things I tried was turning Globals on (briefly) and that didn't help anyway.)

[bradgrafelman]

I think it's a problem with your headers. You might have blank lines/spaces in your PHP script above or below the '<?PHP' and '?>'.

Check to make sure this isn't the case. Also, make sure you don't echo() any data before the header() call.

If that doesn't work, re-post the ENTIRE redirect.php script.

I believe we've almost found the problem, because it's clearly working out the IF statement correctly, but it's not returning any location headers.

For example, when a valid search is submitted, this is what your sever sends:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 01:38:31 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.33 (Unix) FrontPage/5.0.2.2624 PHP/4.3.10
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.10
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

[jcdrake]

The only echo is the last line, and I tried trimming the blank lines a while ago, so here it is:

<?php
   // This script redirects the browser to another script,
   // depending on what parameters are provided. It is used 
   // for processing several submit buttons from an HTML <form>
   include 'include.php';

   set_error_handler("errorHandler");

   session_start();

   // Clean up the data, and save the results in
   // an array
   foreach($_GET as $varname => $value)
           $parameters[$varname] = clean($value, 10);

   // Did they want to view the cart?
    if (!empty($_GET["view"]))  

   {
      // Redirect the browser to the cart page
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/view.php?");
      exit;
   }

   // Did they want to go home?
    if (!empty($_GET["home"]))  

   {
      // Redirect the browser to the home page
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/intro.htm");
      exit;
   }

   // Did they want to empty the cart?
    if (!empty($_GET["empty"]))  

   {
      // Redirect the browser to the empty page
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/delete.php");
      exit;
   }

   // Did they want to finalise the purchase?
    if (!empty($_GET["search"]))  

   {  

      // Redirect the browser to the search input page 
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:" 
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/search.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}"); 
      exit;  

   } 

   // Did they want to login to the site?
    if (!empty($_GET["login"]))  

   {
      // Save the referer page for later redirection
      if (session_is_registered("referer"))
         session_unregister("referer");
      session_register("referer");
      $_SESSION['referer'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];

  // Redirect the browser to the login page
  // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
  header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/login.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}");
  exit;
   }

if (!empty($_GET["logout"]))  
   {
      // Save the referer page for later redirection
      if (session_is_registered("referer"))
         session_unregister("referer");
      session_register("referer");
      $_SESSION['referer'] = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];

  // Redirect the browser to the logout page
  // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
  header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/logout.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}");
  exit;
   }

   // Did they want to finalise the purchase?
    if (!empty($_GET["buy"]))  

   {
      // Redirect the browser to the purchase page
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/finalize.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}");
      exit;
   }


   // Did they want to finalise the purchase?
    if (!empty($_GET["account"]))  

   {
      // Redirect the browser to the customer account page
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:"
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/addcust.php");
      exit;
   }

   // They got here without providing an option, so
   // there is a problem
   echo "We're experiencing a temporary scripting error. Please visit again shortly.";
?>

(Originally I was using "if (!empty($parameters["search"]))" but that doesn't seem to make a difference either way.)

[bradgrafelman]

Umm.. did you take out that change of the print_r($_REQUEST) ? I was hoping you'd leave it up so I could test it.

Also, try changing this:

    if (!empty($_GET["account"]))   

   { 
      // Redirect the browser to the customer account page 
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:" 
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/addcust.php"); 
      exit; 
   } 

   // They got here without providing an option, so 
   // there is a problem 
   echo "We're experiencing a temporary scripting error. Please visit again shortly."; 
?> 

to this:

    if (!empty($_GET["account"]))   

   { 
      // Redirect the browser to the customer account page 
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:" 
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/addcust.php"); 
      exit; 
   } else {

   // They got here without providing an option, so 
   // there is a problem 
   echo "We're experiencing a temporary scripting error. Please visit again shortly.<br><br>\n<pre>";
   print_r($_REQUEST);
   echo '</pre>';
   }
?> 

NOTE: I re-added the debug info in the above version. Once you make that change, let me know so I can go back to the page and play with it a bit 😉

[jcdrake]

Okay, I uploaded the new file with the print_r($REQUEST) in both spots -- after if (!empty($GET["search"])) and below the echo: http://straittalk.com/sd47/redirect.php

[bradgrafelman]

Ok, this is getting rediculous. Try replacing this:

      // Redirect the browser to the search input page 
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:" 
      header("Location: http://straittalk.com/sd47/search.php?{$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}");  

with this:

      // Redirect the browser to the search input page 
      // using the HTTP response header "Location:" 
      echo '<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="0; URL=http://straittalk.com/sd47/search.php?'. $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] . '">';