[RESOLVED] The newbie header missing problem

[OldTom]

I'm a newbie for sure. I've been searching the internet and books I have for a solution to the following error message.

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/keenancomm/www/www/test/ccc/aboutus/contact.php:1) in /home/keenancomm/www/www/test/ccc/aboutus/contact.php on line 59

I'm told it's probably a space or extra line or an echo or print statement or any html. But I just don't see it. Here's the first 60 lines of code.

Any help for a confused and frustrate newbie is much appreciated.

<?php if (@$_POST['submitted']) {
  $name = @$_POST['name'];
  $phone = @$_POST['phone'];
  $email = @$_POST['email'];
  $msg = @$_POST['message'];

	// if magic quotes on, remove Magic Quotes effect
if ( get_magic_quotes_gpc() ) { // no arg needed - returns 1 if magic quotes are on, else 0
  $name = stripslashes($name);
  $phone = stripslashes($phone);
  $email = stripslashes($email);
  $msg = stripslashes($msg);
}

$error_msg=array(); // intialize array 


if ($name=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Please enter your name";
}

if ($phone=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Please enter your phone"; // add to the array 

}
if ($email=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Please enter your email address"; // add to the array 

}
if ($msg=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Don't forget to write your message!"; // add to the array 

}


// set up variables for use in the mail function 5

$destination_email="[e-mail]";
$email_subject="My PHP form info";
$headers="From: [e-mail]";
$sentname="A message from $name";
$sentphone="Phone is $phone";
$sentmsg="Message : $msg";
$sentemail="email address: $email";
//assemble the email body text in a variable 

$email_body = "$sentname\n\n$sentphone\n\n$sentmsg\n\n$sentemail";

// if no errors, and we are here b/c the form was submitted rather than the page first loading 

if  (!$error_msg) {
// then send the email using PHP's mail function 
mail ($destination_email, $email_subject, $email_body, $headers);
	 // redirect to a new page - we are done on this page 
   header ('Location: form_confirm.php');
	 // stop the script right here 

   exit();
}    

[dagon]

your missing a }

[OldTom]

Thanks for your suggestion. I apologize I should have posted all the PHP code. I only posted to where the error message indicated the problem was recognized.

Here is the complete code.

<?php if (@$_POST['submitted']) {
  $name = @$_POST['name'];
  $phone = @$_POST['phone'];
  $email = @$_POST['email'];
  $msg = @$_POST['message'];

	// if magic quotes on, remove Magic Quotes effect
if ( get_magic_quotes_gpc() ) { // no arg needed - returns 1 if magic quotes are on, else 0
  $name = stripslashes($name);
  $phone = stripslashes($phone);
  $email = stripslashes($email);
  $msg = stripslashes($msg);
}

$error_msg=array(); // intialize array 


if ($name=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Please enter your name";
}

if ($phone=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Please enter your phone"; // add to the array 

}
if ($email=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Please enter your email address"; // add to the array 

}
if ($msg=="") { // test for empty text string 

$error_msg[]="Don't forget to write your message!"; // add to the array 

}


// set up variables for use in the mail function 5

$destination_email="[e-mail]";
$email_subject="My PHP form info";
$headers="From: [e-mail]";
$sentname="A message from $name";
$sentphone="Phone is $phone";
$sentmsg="Message : $msg";
$sentemail="email address: $email";
//assemble the email body text in a variable 

$email_body = "$sentname\n\n$sentphone\n\n$sentmsg\n\n$sentemail";

// if no errors, and we are here b/c the form was submitted rather than the page first loading 

if  (!$error_msg) {
// then send the email using PHP's mail function 
mail ($destination_email, $email_subject, $email_body, $headers);
	 // redirect to a new page - we are done on this page 
   header ('Location: form_confirm.php');
	 // stop the script right here 

   exit();
}    

}       //end of if post submitted 
?>

[NogDog]

(output started at /home/keenancomm/www/www/test/ccc/aboutus/contact.php:1)

That part of the error message is telling you that line 1 of contact.php generated output to the browser, and thus after that point headers can no longer be sent. That output could simply be a space or newline before the opening <?php tag. Another culprit can be the Unicode BOM character that some editors will put at the start of a file if it's saving it as Unicode.

[OldTom]

I was looking for a space or line before the <?. Can't see it. The code I posted starts at line 1. I can't see anything before the <?.

The first line of code is:

<?php if (@$_POST['submitted']) {

I understand what the error message seems to be saying - I just can't see anything there that's causing the problem.

The Unicode BOM is another possibility. However, I picked up the beginning of the code from Charles Wyke-Smith's book (and website) Codin' for the Web <www.codinfortheweb.com>. I made some modifications to it for my purposes. I also ran his code picked up directly from his website.

I use Dreamweaver and BBEdit. I compared the two files in BBEdit and only found the differences I expected - no additional spaces or lines. And, as far as I can tell, no Unicode BOM Character. His code works - my adapted code works except for the header(). I remain puzzled.

[NogDog]

You don't by any chance have any sort of auto_prepend_file set up in your configuration?

[OldTom]

Not that I know of.

I would know if I had such a thing in Dreamweaver or BBEdit. And on the server I have two files that are behaving differently so the server isn't adding anything.

I suspect when I find the problem it will seem very obvious, but it doesn't yet.

[NogDog]

When in doubt, copy-and-paste the text into a new file in a plain text editor, save it, rename the old file, then rename the new one to the original file name, and see if it works. If so, then you'll know something was adding something to the start of the file. Also, if uploading the file to the server via FTP, check your FTP transfer settings in case it has some sort of "transfer text as Unicode" or such. (You might even want to tell it to transfer the file as binary instead of text.) If none of that helps, then it's probably up to you to find the "obvious" problem that you'll laugh about once you find it. 😉

[OldTom]

I don't know (and still can't see what the problem was) but I took the file that was working properly and copied the first line and pasted it into the file that wasn't working properly. It worked then.

I had looked at it in text editors that were supposed to show all the gremlins, but whatever it was didn't show up.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions. From now on I'll be doing a little more judicious cut and pasting.

Thanks.