[RESOLVED] Redirect at later point in script?

Smeep

Well, I've been reading up on redirects, using the header() function.

What I've read is that the header() function needs to be at the top of the script.

I have a timer script, counting down to new years GMT, how would I redirect when the timer is at 0?

<?php
function time_until($event, $day, $month, $year = "unset", $min = 0, $hour =
0, $sec = 0) {

/* The above prints the time until a given date.
This can calculate to any time of day. */

/* If you didn't put a year above ($year = "unset"), assume it's the current year */

if ($year == "unset")
    $year = date("Y");

$left = mktime($sec, $min, $hour, $month, $day, $year) - mktime();

/* Lets assum that this is an annual event such as a Birthday and that
it will happen again next year. This starts the counter over again after
the event takes place. */

if (0 > $left)
    $left = mktime($sec, $min, $hour, $month, $day, $year + 1) - mktime();

/* If there is no time left on the counter (the day has come)
Change the "My" if you want, but leave the $event for the event name
This is set so it will say: "My Birthday" */

if ($left == 0)
    return "My $event";

$time = array(
    "year" => 31449600,
    "week" => 604800,
    "day" => 86400,
    "hour" => 3600,
    "minute" => 60,
    "second" => 1);

$ret_str = "There ";

while(list($span, $scale) = each($time)) {
    $chunk = floor($left / $scale);
    $left = $left % $scale;

    if ($chunk != 0):

 /* if there is more than one day left, have are, for 1 day have is */

        $p1 = ($chunk == 1) ? "is" : "are";

        if ($chunk > 1)
            $span = "${span}s";

        $sep = ($left == 0) ? " and " : ", ";

        $ret_str .= ((!ereg("[0-9]", "$ret_str")) ? $p1 : $sep) .
        " $chunk $span";

    endif;

}

return $ret_str . " until my ETA on ${event}.";

}

 /* As an example, how long until your Birthday comes? */
 /* ("Event", day of month, month); */
echo time_until("completion", 1, 1);
?>

So yeah, once the code is at zero, I want to redirect to another URL (Also known as, opening my site while I'm out getting drunk 😉 )
p.s. This is not my code.

SargeZT

At the very top of the page, put an ob_start();
Then, at some point during the script, put a:

if (time_until("completion", 1, 1) <= 0) {
   header("The Header Redirect");
}

And ob_end_flush(); at the very bottom of the page.

Smeep

What is an ob_start()? Does anything need to go in the brackets?

Thank you for your help. I've got less than 15 minutes to finish this before I aim to leave for the night, hehe 😃

EDIT: I've uploaded my script, with done what you said, but it's just redirecting on it's own! It's not suposed to do it yet as the time isn't zero.

<?php
ob_start();
function time_until($event, $day, $month, $year = "unset", $min = 0, $hour =
0, $sec = 0) {

/* The above prints the time until a given date.
This can calculate to any time of day. */

/* If you didn't put a year above ($year = "unset"), assume it's the current year */

if ($year == "unset")
    $year = date("Y");

$left = mktime($sec, $min, $hour, $month, $day, $year) - mktime();

/* Lets assum that this is an annual event such as a Birthday and that
it will happen again next year. This starts the counter over again after
the event takes place. */

if (0 > $left)
    $left = mktime($sec, $min, $hour, $month, $day, $year + 1) - mktime();

/* If there is no time left on the counter (the day has come)
Change the "My" if you want, but leave the $event for the event name
This is set so it will say: "My Birthday" */

if ($left == 0)
    return "My $event";

$time = array(
    "year" => 31449600,
    "week" => 604800,
    "day" => 86400,
    "hour" => 3600,
    "minute" => 60,
    "second" => 1);

$ret_str = "There ";

while(list($span, $scale) = each($time)) {
    $chunk = floor($left / $scale);
    $left = $left % $scale;

    if ($chunk != 0):

 /* if there is more than one day left, have are, for 1 day have is */

        $p1 = ($chunk == 1) ? "is" : "are";

        if ($chunk > 1)
            $span = "${span}s";

        $sep = ($left == 0) ? " and " : ", ";

        $ret_str .= ((!ereg("[0-9]", "$ret_str")) ? $p1 : $sep) .
        " $chunk $span";

    endif;

}

return $ret_str . " until my ETA on ${event}.";

}

 /* As an example, how long until your Birthday comes? */
 /* ("Event", day of month, month); */
echo time_until("completion", 1, 1);

if (time_until("completion", 1, 1) <= 0) {
   header("location: http://www.webfriends.biz/main.php");
} 

ob_end_flush();
?>

SargeZT

Ok. Try to get you out quickly then 😉

ob_start is starting an Output Buffer. Essentially, it stores all data that is mean to be presented to the user in a variable. Thus, nothing besides the header information is sent until the very end, where you do an ob_end_flush(), which sends the data that was stored out in brackets.

And inside the header command, you'd put something tantamount to

header("Location: http://www.thesite.com");

With thesite.com changed you the exact location you are redirecting to.

Smeep

Thanks so much for your help, I revised my previous post. The page is just automatically going to the redirect, seems to be ignoring the fact that the time is not 0 yet.

SargeZT

Sorry, I didn't really read the function to carefully :/

if (time_until("completion", 1, 1) == "My completion") {
   header("Location: http://www.webfriends.biz/main.php");
}

It's a hodgepodge way of doing it, but it should work.

Smeep

Well, the timer is back up, no time for testing

Thanks so much for your help, and happy new year 😃

I'm going to mark the thread resolved.

EDIT: It didn't work, but hey, that was last year, so never mind 😃