Never used php - how to redirect?

steevg

Hi,
My first time here, and I'm hoping this is the place to start.
I'm building my very first web page, and need to redirect a hyperlink in a pdf file, through my main web site, and on to another site.

I've been given some php code to use, but wouldn't know where to start inserting it!
Can someone either spare some time to go through the process, and maybe explain how all this is going to work, or point me to other posts which explain this ?

I've got my site looking OK, and don't want to play around with it too much.

The php code I have been given is:

<?php header("Location: http://Your.Redirect.Url.com"); ?>

My apologies if this is TOO basic for these forums, but I guess I have to start somewhere.

Kind regards,
Steevg

Kudose

That would need to be placed at the top of the page you are trying to redirect to, before any output is sent to the browser.

i.e.

<?php
//you can do DB queires and stuff here

/* do the redirect */
header('Location: http://www.google.com');

//you can put HTML down here if you want to, although
//more times than not, the client will never see it
?>

steevg

Kudose,
hey thanks for that.
So . . . . my understanding of php (from reading some of the other posts here) is that ANY php code HAS to go at the top BEFORE the html . . . .. is that correct?

Regarding inserting the php . . . . . lets say my target site is "http://www.targetsite.com" . . . . on my homepage (http://www.homepage.com) do I put:

<?php
/header('Location: http://www.targetsite.com')
?>

. . . . so the hyperlink in my pdf file points to my homepage?
Or do I create a new page on my homesite called http://www.homepage.com/targetsite.html - and insert the php there?

This would make more sense as the redirect would simply go there and "Redirect" any link which points to the page . . . . . is that correct?

Apologies Kudose . . . .. but I'm a TOTAL novice as I mentioned before!

Many thanks for any help you (or others) may be able to offer.

Kind regards,
Steevg

_theworks

steevg wrote:
do I create a new page on my homesite called http://www.homepage.com/targetsite.html - and insert the php there?

This would make more sense as the redirect would simply go there and "Redirect" any link which points to the page . . . . . is that correct?

yup

Kudose

steevg wrote:
Kudose,
hey thanks for that.
So . . . . my understanding of php (from reading some of the other posts here) is that ANY php code HAS to go at the top BEFORE the html . . . .. is that correct?

No. Any code that requires headers to be sent (the header function for example), must be called and run before output is sent to the browser. You can put PHP code in the middle of your HTML as long as you dont send additional page headers (session info, headers, etc . . .).

steevg wrote:
Regarding inserting the php . . . . . lets say my target site is "http://www.targetsite.com" . . . . on my homepage (http://www.homepage.com) do I put:

<?php
/header('Location: http://www.targetsite.com')
?>

. . . . so the hyperlink in my pdf file points to my homepage?
Or do I create a new page on my homesite called http://www.homepage.com/targetsite.html - and insert the php there?

This would make more sense as the redirect would simply go there and "Redirect" any link which points to the page . . . . . is that correct?

You would use a regular anchor link in your PDF, linking to your website. So when someone clicks a link in your PDF, it pop's open a browser and takes them to the designated URL.

You're not actually "redirecting" in your PDF ... you're just linking. A redirect is when you go to mywebsite.com but end up at mywebsite.net. to do that, you either use the [man]header[/man] function or a META refresh.

Like you mentioned, the best route to link TO the PDF, would be to create a normal link to targetsite.php and in that file, redirect to download the PDF (using a [man]header[/man]).

Also, just as an FYI ... most Apache setup's need the page extension to be PHP, PHP3, or PHTML for Apache to interpet the code. Not targetsite.html.

If I confused you more, let me know and I can try again.

🙂

steevg

Tilt !
Oh heck, just as I thought I was beginning to see what's needed!

Ok guys, I think I'm going to have to get a tutorial book before doing this . . .. I'm sure it's a basically simple operation to undertake, but I'm going to need a simple "by numbers" instruction about how to do this, and I sure dont want to tie anyone here up with that kind of post.
Thanks for your help anyway . . . . . when I'm a bit more familiar, I'll come back and maybe ask some sensible questions!

Have a great weekend!

Kind regards,
steevg

steevg

Kudose/_the works,
Hey guys, well with many thanks to you, I persevered (trial & error) and got my redirect working!
The MAIN problem was that (I told you I was new to all this) I hadn't RENAMED my new site file ".php" . . . . how's THAT for a stupid error.

But much thanks to you both for your input . . . . . hopefully I can make a bit more sense of all this now as I try to improve things and refine the scripts a little bit more.

One final question (again probably a basic question but here goes):
Do I HAVE to create a new page for every redirect . . . . or is there a way to create MULTIPLE redirects from ONE web page?

Very kind regards,
Steevg

Kudose

You can use a [man]switch[/man] or multiple if statements.

i.e.

//do some error checking and data verification
//this is just an example
$page = $_GET['page'];

switch($page){
  case 'index':
   header('Location: hhtp://www.google.com');
   break;
  case 'digg':
   header('Location http://www.digg.com');
   break;
  //etc . . .
  default:
   include('error.php'); //include this for wanderers
}

steevg

Kudose,
Hmmm . . . . . I can see some more "trial & error" pages coming up soon!

Thanks for the info once again . . . . . this get's more & more interesting eh!

Regards,
Steevg