[RESOLVED] Index.php to make a choice? Possible?

Ralph2

I have a small family only website. My index.php has a login form with a remember me feature. If.. a member has a valid cookie set I would like my index.php to show one form (essentially a "click here to enter our site"). If there is no valid cookie to show another form (my login form).

It seems to me that this should be possible.. sadly I have not the skills to implement it. 🙂

If, this is easy (or possible?)... can someone please show me how?

Thanks for your time

dalecosp

The basic premise isn't terribly difficult:

if ($_COOKIE['secret_value_already_set']) {
   echo "<a href=\"somepage.php\">Click here</a> to enter the site!";
} else {
   header("location: login.php");
}

HTH,

Ralph2

Thanks.. I will try that. I may be back😃

Ralph2

Thanks dalecosp.
I have it half working..
My else does not work. I want it to open a new page, how can I do that.
This does not work
else
header("location: index1.php");

djjjozsi

You should always ask with a source code, please.
To make it better:

if (isset($_COOKIE['secret_value_already_set'])) {
   echo "##########";
} else {
   header("location: login.php");
die();
}

Then you should replace a code to "open a new page,".
In PHP you directly can't open a new window, PHP is a server side language.
You should search for a JS script to open a new window in a blank page.

Ralph2

Thanks djjjazsi.
Unfortunately I can not make it work.. so for the time being I am giving up. I get error messages about not being able to write headers.. or something to that effect. Evidently there can be no html code executed before the header part and I can not figure that part out.
Thanks again for your help

bradgrafelman

Ralph2 wrote:
Evidently there can be no html code executed before the header part and I can not figure that part out.

That should be clearly evident, aye, by reading the PHP manual:

PHP Manual wrote:
Remember that header() must be called before any actual output is sent, either by normal HTML tags, blank lines in a file, or from PHP.

Ralph2

It "seems" to be a catch-22 situation. I want the "else" in if (isset($_COOKIE['secret_value_already_set'])) to do the header thing.. But the isset($cookie.. routine runs code if true.. which defeats the "else"
At least that is my take on the problem.

My problem in a nutshell for which there seems no solution that I can figure out.
Index.php checks for cookie.. if true shows one form.. if false shows another form. Ideally on the same page but I am quite willing to make a second page with different form if that works. Thus the idea of using header to open the second index1.php

I do thank those that are trying to help

bradgrafelman

I'm afraid I don't understand your problem. All that is needed to be done is to move any code that might need to perform a header() redirect to be executed before any output.

djjjozsi

Ralph2;10972505 wrote:
the header part and I can not figure that part out.

Check your PHP encoding and make sure it is not utf8 with BOM. If it is save your file as utf8 without BOM.

DaveRandom

I would approach this with include():

<html>
  <head>
    <title>This is my welcome page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
<?php

if (isset($_COOKIE['secret_value_already_set'])) { 
  print "<a href=\"somepage.php\">Click here</a> to enter the site!";
} else { 
  include("login_page.php");
}

?>
  </body>
</html>

Then 'login_page.php' just needs to generate the body content for your login form, eventually setting the cookie value required to enter the site (after successful auth).

Really, i prefer to have all pages run through a master index.php, and just include the page requested - that way you can check the auth details every time a page is loaded before serving any content.

print "<a href=\"somepage.php\">Click here</a> to enter the site!";

Becomes

print "<a href=\"index.php?page=somepage\">Click here</a> to enter the site!";

Ralph2

😃
Thanks all!
I used DaveRandom include(): approach, seems to work just fine. One "teeny" problem I noted that may have been responsible for some of my previous grief.

It seems that I had a space in front of my index1.php. When WS_FTP uploads such a file it adds an underscore in front of the file name as in _index1.php.... who would have guessed :rolleyes:

Anyway I really appreciate all the hand holding and help in helping me figure this out