Redirection - Is it Possible? - PHPBuilder Forums

Redirection - Is it Possible?

GarthThe1st

The script I am trying to create needs to run a form, get input, process it and then redirect to another page that's in a different domain. Obviously, headers have been written well before the code redirection is to take place.

If I were on a Windows server, coding in ASP, I would use Response.Redirect('url').

I cannot find any way of performing this function in PHP. Is it impossible? Should I give up trying?

Any advice please?

NogDog

[man]header/man

header("Location: http://www.example.com/index.html");

GarthThe1st

Thanks for responding, NogDog.

As I said in the initial post, the page has already sent the headers. So the result of using the header(Location: $url) function is to generate a "Headers already sent" error.

This page displays a form, processes the form for validation and THEN needs to go to another page on a different domain. SIMPLE to do in ASP - but, so far, impossible in PHP.

Is there something I'm missing here?

Thanks.

NogDog

If you are processing/validating form inputs on the server side, there's no reason that headers have to already have been sent until you actually need to generate output back to the client. It may mean some rearranging of code so that all the PHP form processing/validating comes first.

<?php
if(count($_POST))  // we have form data
{
   // do validation stuff...
   // ...then...
   if($all_inputs_are_valid)
   {
      header('Location: http://wherever.com/result.html');
      exit;
   }
   else
   {
      // format error messages for use in output below
   }
}
?>
<html>
...etc....
<?php
if(!empty($errros))
{
   // output error message(s)
}
...rest of page...
</html>

Then again, maybe I completely misunderstand what you are trying to do.

rowanparker

Or you can use a META refresh in HTML.
But some people disable these.

GarthThe1st

Sorry guys - I didn't provide enough information for you to be able to appreciate the problem fully.

It really is a response.redirect(url) (ASP) equivalent that I need. The page in question displays a great deal in addition to the subscribe form, including Google adsense.

I'm not trying to advertise anything but if you want to see what I'm talking about, one of the pages in this genre is at http://rampupyourcareer.info/executive/ - it's the Newsletter subscription form that's causing me grief.

I've only recently converted to PHP from ASP; I just cannot believe that this fundamental capability is missing from our coding armoury.

Thanks.

NogDog

ASP will give the same exact sort of error with response.redirect if working with with buffering off (Response.Buffer = false), which is off by default in IIS 4 and on by default in IIS 5. If you want to have output buffering on in PHP, use the [man]ob_start/man function.

Weedpacket

Or if you want to do it at the configuration level the same way that IIS does it, there is the output_buffering directive in php.ini. Personally I've never had to turn it on.

GarthThe1st

Thanks for that input guys.

I'll have to get my head around the ob_start() function. 🆒