Header () to redirect after submitting form

[Eloquent2]

Hi all,

I had a contact form working a few weeks ago, but I come back to the form today and started to make alterations so that the user would be redirected to a thank you page.

Here is my HTML code:

<form method="post" action="contact.php" align="center"> 
My Email Address: <br><input name="email" type="text" size="60"><br><br>
Message:<br> 
<textarea name="message" rows="15" cols="60"></textarea><br> 
<input type="submit">
</form>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

And here is my php code:

<?php
$to = "*****@gmail.com"; 
$subject = "Contact Us";
$email = $_POST["email"];
$message = $_POST["message"];
$headers = "From: $email"; 
$sent = mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers) ; 
if($sent) 
{header('Location: thankyou.html'); }
else 
{print "We encountered an error sending your mail"; }
?>

Obviously, I'm a noob, but I thought that the email would send and then if sending is successful, output the user to thankyou.html and if not echo the failure of the script.

I'm using a program to write my code in and inside it says this error:

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/Synergy/-:2) in /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/Synergy/- on line 10

I don't understand. 😕

[bpat1434]

The first thing you need to do is to make sure there is no leading or trailing spaces before or after the opening and closing php tags. E.g.

 <?php

// My dummy code here

?>   

will cause errors when dealing with headers and session starts / stops.

The next thing i would do is to remove completely the closing php tag. If that's all the code in contact.php, the closing tag is unnecessary and can cause problems (particularly this one).

If you use includes in contact.php, you need to do the same for each included file as well (that is trim the leading and trailing spaces (if there are any)).

To circumvent this in the future, you can add a new switch or if/else statement utilizing [man]headers_sent/man to see if response headers have already been sent or not. If they haven't, you're free to use header(), otherwise, you'll have to resort to the meta refresh:

<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;http://www.mydomain.com/thankyou.html" />

[Eloquent2]

Thank you very much for your reply.

I've made some changes, but still getting nothing in return and I'm not sure how to use the Meta... I thought that would go in the head tag, but if it did then wouldn't that override the php as head tag is called first? I'm sorry, I am a complete noob.

Although I have read through the w3schools tutorial and understand Java, HTML, CSS, Javascript etc. I'm just not very good with them.

Anywho:

<form method="post" action="contact.php" align="center"> 
My Email Address: <br><input name="email" type="text" size="60"><br><br>
Message:<br> 
<textarea name="message" rows="15" cols="60"></textarea><br> 
<input type="submit">
</form>

The form uses the post method and posts data to contact.php using the email and message fields.

<?php
$email = $_POST["email"];
$message = $_POST["message"];
$to = "[e-mail]"; 
$subject = "Contact Us";
$headers = "From: $email"; 
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers) ; 
if (!headers_sent()) {
    header('Location: thankyou.html');
    exit;
}
if (!headers_sent($filename, $linenum)) {
    header('Location: thankyou.html');
    exit;
}
else {
    echo "Headers already sent in $filename on line $linenum\n" .
          "Cannot redirect, for now please click this <a " .
          "thankyou.html\">link</a> instead\n";
    exit;
}
?>

contact.php collects the forms email and message fields and uses the mail function to send the email. If no headers are sent then use the header function to send user to thankyou.html. Else, ask the user to redirect themselves.

I am struggling. I don't know why it won't work and it isn't like I have a compiler like when I used to do JAVA and it could tell me otherwise. Am I making some stupid mistake? When I click send I just see the php file in my browser 😕

[bpat1434]

You're echoing something, printing something, var_dumping something or there is whitespace at the beginning or ending of your contact.php or a file that is included in contact.php.

That's the best I can give you.

Using the meta tag can really go anywhere; however, it should go in the <head> but it will still be adhered to if it's in the <body>.

[Eloquent2]

This is the code that I've got currently then:

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; thankyou.html"/>
</head>
<body>
<?php 
$email = $_POST["email"]; 
$message = $_POST["message"]; 
$to = "[e-mail]"; 
$subject = "Contact Us"; 
$headers = "From: $email"; 
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers); 
if (!headers_sent()) { 
    header('Location: thankyou.html'); 
    exit; 
} 
if (!headers_sent($filename, $linenum))
{ 
    header('Location: thankyou.html'); 
    exit; 
} 
else { 
    echo "Headers already sent in $filename on line $linenum\n" . 
          "Cannot redirect, for now please click this <a " . 
          "thankyou.html\">link</a> instead\n"; 
    exit; 
} 
?>
</body>
</html>

From what I can see I have no white space, the only things that I am echoing are in the if else statements... is there anything I can do to test it further? Or can you refer me to anyone you think could help further? Or am I just at a loss? :queasy:

Thank you very much for your help though, I appreciate it.

[bpat1434]

<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; thankyou.html"/>
</head>
<body>

is output BEFORE the php is executed, thus that's your "whitespace".

You can easily circumvent this by moving the PHP code to the top, and only displaying what needs to be displayed in the html page. E.g.

<?php
$message = ''; // Used to display an error message

$email = $_POST["email"];
$message = $_POST["message"];
$to = "[e-mail]";
$subject = "Contact Us";
$headers = "From: $email";
if(mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers))
{
    if (!headers_sent()) {
        header('Location: thankyou.html');
        exit;
    }
    else
    {
        $message = 'Successfully sent email.  Please <a href="thankyou.html">click here</a> to continue.';
    }
}
else
{
    $message = 'Unable to send email.';
}
?>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Contact</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if(!empty($message))
{
    echo '<p>'.$message.'</p>';
}
?>
</body>
</html>

Now, judging from the looks of it, if you go directly to that page, nothing happens. If that's true, then you don't need to output anything at all and can just redirect back to the form page.

[Eloquent2]

Thanks, I used the above code and nothing happens, I don't get an error message, all I am given is the php file in my browser after clicking send via the form.

It doesn't send emails, it doesn't seem to be doing anything. You must hate noobs! :o

I don't know if I give you my complete code that would help you to help me, I had it sending me emails two weeks ago, don't know what I've done.

The form is at the bottom:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to Synergy: Private Fitness Studio</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="Main.css" />
</head>
<body>
<center>
<a href="Home.htm">
<img src="SynergyLogo.jpg" alt="Synergy Logo" align="top">
</a>
</center>
<br />
<table class="solid" width="100%">
<tr>
  <td class="navigate" width="20%"><a href="AboutUs.htm">
About us</a></td>
  <td width="20%"><a href="Trainer.htm">
Trainer Profiles</a></td>
  <td class="navigate" width="20%"><a href="Services.htm">
Services</a></td>
  <td class="navigate" width="20%"><a href="PhotoGallery.htm">
Photo Gallery</a></td>
  <td class="navigate" width="20%"><a href="Contact.html">
Contact us</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<center> 
<table class="main">
<tr>
<td width="50%">
<h1>
Address</h1>
<p>
<center>
Synergy Group<br>
Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa <br>
Nutfield <br>
Surrey<br> 
RH1 4EL<br>
</center>
</p>
<h1>
Telephone
</h1> 
<p>
<center>01737 824436</center>
</p>
</td>
<td width="5%"> 
</td>
<td width="45%">
<img src="Picture 6.png" alt="Synergy Logo" width="100%" height="80%">
</img>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table class="main">
<tr>
<td width="100%">
<h1>Email</h1>
<p align="left">
If you would like to contact us via email about any of the services that we have to offer, please fill in the form below, starting with your email address and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 
</p>
<form method="post" action="contact.php" align="center"> 
My Email Address: <br><input name="email" type="text" size="60"><br><br>
Message:<br> 
<textarea name="message" rows="15" cols="60"></textarea><br> 
<input type="submit">
</form>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>

This is the complete php file - contact.php:

<?php
$message = ''; // Used to display an error message
$email = $_POST["email"];
$message = $_POST["message"];
$to = "****@gmail.com";
$subject = "Contact Us";
$headers = "From: $email";
if(mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers))
{
    if (!headers_sent()) {
        header('Location: thankyou.html');
        exit;
    }
    else
    {
        $message = 'Successfully sent email.  Please <a href="thankyou.html">click here</a> to continue.';
    }
}
else
{
    $message = 'Unable to send email.';
}
?>
<html>
<head>
    <title>Contact</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if(!empty($message))
{
    echo '<p>'.$message.'</p>';
}
?>
</body>
</html>

I understand if you don't have the time or the care to help me... are there any tools that can help when trying to diagnose php problems? 😕

[bpat1434]

I'm not particularly sure.

Try this on for size:

contact.html

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
	<head>
		<title>Welcome to Synergy: Private Fitness Studio</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="Main.css" />
	</head>
	<body>
		<center>
			<a href="Home.htm">
				<img src="SynergyLogo.jpg" alt="Synergy Logo" align="top">
			</a>
		</center>
		<br />
		<table class="solid" width="100%">
			<tr>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="AboutUs.htm">About us</a>
				</td>
				<td width="20%">
					<a href="Trainer.htm">Trainer Profiles</a>
				</td>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="Services.htm">Services</a>
				</td>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="PhotoGallery.htm">Photo Gallery</a>
				</td>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="Contact.html">Contact us</a>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</table>
		<center> 
			<table class="main">
				<tr>
					<td width="50%">
						<h1>Address</h1>
						<p>
							<center>
								Synergy Group<br>
								Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa <br>
								Nutfield <br>
								Surrey<br> 
								RH1 4EL<br>
							</center>
						</p>
						<h1>Telephone</h1> 
						<p>
							<center>01737 824436</center>
						</p>
					</td>
					<td width="5%"> </td>
					<td width="45%">
						<img src="Picture 6.png" alt="Synergy Logo" width="100%" height="80%"></img>
					</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
			<table class="main">
				<tr>
					<td width="100%">
						<h1>Email</h1>
						<p align="left">
							If you would like to contact us via email about any of the services that we have to offer, please fill in the form below, starting with your email address and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 
						</p>
						<form method="post" action="contact.php" align="center"> 
							My Email Address: <br>
							<input name="email" type="text" size="60"><br><br>
							Message:<br> 
							<textarea name="message" rows="15" cols="60"></textarea><br> 
							<input type="submit">
						</form>
					</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</center>
	</body>
</html>

contact.php

<?php
$errors = ''; /* For holding "error" messages */

/* If they posted the form */
if(!empty($_POST))
{
	$email = $_POST['email'];
	$message = $_POST['message'];
	$to = '****@gmail.com';
	$subject = 'Contact Us';
	$headers = 'From: $email';

$result = @mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

/* If the mail was successfully sent */
if($result == true)
{
	/* Redirect to thankyou page */
	header('Location: thankyou.html');
	exit;
}
else
{
	/* Populate the error message */
	$errors = 'Failed to send email message.  Please try again later.';
}
}
else
{
	$errors = 'Please provide your comments in the form below.';
}
?><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
	<head>
		<title>Welcome to Synergy: Private Fitness Studio</title>
		<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="Main.css" />
	</head>
	<body>
		<center>
			<a href="Home.htm">
				<img src="SynergyLogo.jpg" alt="Synergy Logo" align="top">
			</a>
		</center>
		<br />
		<table class="solid" width="100%">
			<tr>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="AboutUs.htm">About us</a>
				</td>
				<td width="20%">
					<a href="Trainer.htm">Trainer Profiles</a>
				</td>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="Services.htm">Services</a>
				</td>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="PhotoGallery.htm">Photo Gallery</a>
				</td>
				<td class="navigate" width="20%">
					<a href="Contact.html">Contact us</a>
				</td>
			</tr>
		</table>
		<center> 
			<table class="main">
				<tr>
					<td width="50%">
						<h1>Address</h1>
						<p>
							<center>
								Synergy Group<br>
								Nutfield Priory Hotel & Spa <br>
								Nutfield <br>
								Surrey<br> 
								RH1 4EL<br>
							</center>
						</p>
						<h1>Telephone</h1> 
						<p>
							<center>01737 824436</center>
						</p>
					</td>
					<td width="5%"> </td>
					<td width="45%">
						<img src="Picture 6.png" alt="Synergy Logo" width="100%" height="80%"></img>
					</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
			<table class="main">
				<tr>
					<td width="100%">
						<h1>Email</h1>
						<p align="left">
							If you would like to contact us via email about any of the services that we have to offer, please fill in the form below, starting with your email address and we will get back to you as soon as we can. 
						</p>
						<?php if(!empty($errors)) { ?> 
						<p style="background-color:#eeb4b4; border: 1px solid #900; color: #900; padding: 5px 10px;">
							<h3>Errors found processing request</h3>
							<?php echo $errors; ?>
						</p>
						<?php endif; ?>
						<form method="post" action="contact.php" align="center"> 
							My Email Address: <br>
							<input name="email" type="text" size="60"><br><br>
							Message:<br> 
							<textarea name="message" rows="15" cols="60"></textarea><br> 
							<input type="submit">
						</form>
					</td>
				</tr>
			</table>
		</center>
	</body>
</html>

Hope that helps.

[Eloquent2]

Wicked! We're getting somewhere, I got the message "Errors found processing request"?

[Eloquent2]

Think that is just the heading being outputted though within the contact.php file.

The contact.php file is being displayed at least... Just no message is being sent.

I'm running a MAMP server and it says everything is turned on and running and all files are in the designated folder. hmm

[bpat1434]

Woops... there's a syntax error in there that I didn't catch. I've fixed the code in my above post. The issue was the if() statement. I opened it with if() { but closed it with "endif". It should be:

                        <?php if(!empty($errors)): ?>
                        <p style="background-color:#eeb4b4; border: 1px solid #900; color: #900; padding: 5px 10px;">
                            <h3>Errors found processing request</h3>
                            <?php echo $errors; ?>
                        </p>
                        <?php endif; ?>

As for it not mailing, I have no idea. Is sendmail currently running on your server/computer? Is php aware of it and not missing an configuration flags? I'm not a Mac guy, so I can't really lend a hand in the setup of mail on a mac.

[Eloquent2]

Ahh thank you!

As far as the setup goes, like I said, a few weeks ago a simple email config was working fine and now it has decided to not send emails. I got the root folder pointing to the folder I need. The servers are up and running. Maybe I'll download another server and see what happens....

From your end does it look perfectly fine?

Thanks for your continued help, very much appreciated.

It's now 2am so I'll download another server tomorrow and give it a whirl.

[Eloquent2]

Ahh no, I checked my emails again and thought that it might have been relayed to spam by a slight chance, turns out the code 3 days ago was working fine.

I don't know what possessed Gmail to decide that it was now spam after it was displaying it all fine a few weeks ago 🙁

I like this code better however as I like how the contact.php file displays a message back to the user.

So I'll keep trying to find the problem with this piece of code. If I can't I guess I'll have to hope the code above is working fine from 3 days ago...

[Eloquent2]

Would this line have anything to do with the mail function issue:

$headers = 'From: $email'; 

As the ' ' are around the variable? Just a thought... I'm probably wrong though.

At least we know there is nothing wrong with the server however.

[bpat1434]

Yes, that might have something to do with it, but only because it's a malformed header at that point. So you'd want to concatenate that:

$header = 'From: '.$email;

[Eloquent2]

Nope, interestingly, $errors is not echo'd below Error processing request.

I don't know why, in Hyper Edit the program I write my code in, the message displayed in $errors is echo'd. But not in the browser.

I'm beginning to wonder why in the world the mail isn't working and yet was 5 days ago when messages were being sent as spam.