#anchor not working in URL

[20pictures]

I have been using this code to post to my index.php & arrive at an anchor point on the page:

header("Location: index.php?upload_message=image uploaded#".$folder);

It works fine in FF but not in IE, where it truncates before #. I tried substituting %23 and &35; but this did not work.

Using urlencode & rawurlencode works in FF but again not in IE. Curiously, a similar code that posts to itself in index.php works in all browsers.

I'm not sure if this would be a PHP or HTML issue?

[Derokorian]

I believe you need to url encode the space as well.

[20pictures]

Not sure which space you mean? I did try:

urlencode(header("Location: index.php?upload_message=image uploaded#".$folder)); 
rawurlencode(header("Location: index.php?upload_message=image uploaded#".$folder)); 

Am I placing the urlencode() in the wrong position?

[Derokorian]

header("Location: index.php?upload_message=".url_encode("image uploaded#".$folder));

you are trying to encode the return value if header instead of the string making up the url

[20pictures]

I have found that substituting, either manually or with urlencode(), does put %23 in the URL but then the anchor point does not work (in FF & IE).

example.com/index.php?upload_message=image+uploaded%23folder

[traq]

1. you do need to urlencode the whitespace.

2. you do not need to urlencode the hashtag - encoding prevents a special character from changing how the URL is parsed, but in this case, that's exactly what you want.

what version(s) of IE have you tried this in? I can confirm it happens in IE7 and IE8. I'm almost certain this is not a PHP or HTML problem, rather, just something that IE doesn't do.

[20pictures]

I have tried these in FF & IE9:

header("Location: index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#".$folder); 
header("Location: index.php?upload_message=image+uploaded#".$folder); 

Both work in FF but the # fragment is lost in IE9. I assume the whitespace before index.php does not need encoding?

[20pictures]

I have been testing the location headers below, where a form on index.php submits to an imageupload.php then returns to the page. I included an anchor to return to the form.

header("Location: index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#".$folder); 
header("Location: http://admin.example.com/index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#".$folder);

'The location header requires an absolute path per the HTTP specification...' so I tried the second option but this also fails. Could it have something to do with the site being a subdomain?

[johanafm]

20pictures;10994230 wrote:

header("Location: index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#".$folder); 

incorrect

20pictures;10994230 wrote:

header("Location: http://admin.example.com/index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#".$folder);

Possibly correct. What does $folder contain?

This should work with IE9. What does that target page look like?

[20pictures]

$folder = 'gallery' ;
header("Location: http://admin.example.com/index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#".$folder); 

This did not work. In IE9 the URL truncated before the #

$folder = 'gallery' ;
header("Location: http://admin.example.com/index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#$folder"); 

This did not work either, in IE9.

I have been working on this issue for 2 days now. As it seems to be an issue unique to IE9, I may merge my 2 php documents & use:

htmlentities($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']).'?upload_message=image%20uploaded#'.$folder 

Not what I wanted really ...but I know it works.

[johanafm]

20pictures;10994251 wrote:

$folder = 'gallery' ;
header("Location: http://admin.example.com/index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded#".$folder); 

This did not work. In IE9 the URL truncated before the #

johanafm;10994244 wrote:

This should work with IE9. What does that target page look like?

When I said "should work", I mean that it does work in IE9 (for me). So once again, what does the target page look like, specifically what does the target element of the anchor look like?

[20pictures]

Hope this helps:

<div class="title1"><a name="gallery" id="gallery"></a>gallery images upload</div>

I included

id="gallery"

as I believe it may be replacing

name="gallery"

in an anchor in the future. Could the duplication of "gallery" cause errors in HTML 4.01 Transitional?
I'm not sure if this answers your query, however, if the #fragment is removed from the URI it would make no difference.

[johanafm]

The only "duplication" which isn't allowed is having multiple id attributes with the same value within one document.
In 4.01 (which is pretty much irrelevant since some/most/all current browsers treat documents as HTML 5 no matter what DTD you specify since HTML 5 doesn't actually make use of a DTD but rather follows specific parsing rules):
If the target anchor is an a element, then it should have the fragment identifier as its name attribute value. For any other element, the id attribute should be used.

There are several very good reasons for NOT using a elements as the target of links with fragment identifiers.

• If you want to use the CSS pseudo-class :target to alter the presentation of the target element to set it apart (different background color, color, border etc), then using an empty a element before the actual content will not work, since the empty element is the target. However, if you have the element containing the content as the target, then it will work, such as <div id="fragtarget">content</div>

• HTML 5 (applies to HTML mime types only. for XHTML, see RFC 3023 section 5) traverses the DOM tree to find an exact match for the fragid (assuming non-empty string) against the id attributes, breaking on first encountered match (there should be only one match since it's not allowed to have multiple ids with the same value). If this fails, the process is repeated against the name attribute.

• The anchor element does not have a name attribute in HTML 5

• In HTML 4.01, all but the a element should have the fragid in the id attribute

• The id attribute has to be unique

And here's my example code which works perfectly in IE9, so I have no idea what goes wrong for you from what I've seen.

	header('location: http://example.com/file.html?upload_message=image%20uploaded#gallery');

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<title>test</title>
<style type="text/css">
html
{
	font-size: 1em;
}
body
{
	font-size: 0.8em;
	width: 120px;
}
*:target
{
	background-color: #CCC;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<p>
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>

<p id="gallery">
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>
<p>
	Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>
</body>
</html>

[20pictures]

In IE9 the URI returned is:
http://admin.example.com/index.php?upload_message=image%20uploaded

...with the fragment missing.

I notice your extensive test (thank-you) does differ in one way, that it is not addressed to a sub-domain.
I did wonder whether a redirect may be involved which may complicate the issue?

[johanafm]

Whatever domain you use in a location redirect doesn't matter. Sending a header location redirect to the browser is the same as telling the user in front of the browser to type in the same address in the browser's address location bar.

I've double checked by sending it form example1.example.com to example2.example.com which also works as expected. Sorry to say I have no more ideas to help you out.

[bradgrafelman]

@: Any chance your example redirect that is failing is available to the public? Could you perhaps post a URL to an example script that does the same redirect so that we could directly examine the HTTP headers being sent?

[20pictures]

I have just tried this in IE9:

header('Location: http://admin.example.com/index.php#gallery'); 

...& it failed to show a #fragment!

It did work in the latest Firefox & Safari.

(...sorry, but the actual files concerned are not yet public)

[bradgrafelman]

While researching the validity of using a fragment in an absoluteURI (such as in the Location header), I came upon this blog article with the following comment:

DanielKi on 16 May 2011 6:56 PM wrote:

Unless I'm mistaken, the Location field, as specified by section 14.30 of RFC 2616, is always an absolute URI. RFC3986 specifies that an absolute URI can contain a query string, but not a fragment. IE and Safari's implementation is the correct one, according to these two RFCs.

[20pictures]

Thanks ...I will look into that. I have just tested in IE8 on a different pc. It fails to attach the #fragment in IE8 as well!
Not sure how JOHANAFM gets it to work if IE is simply abiding by the RFC rules?

I think I may have to merge the 2 php files & use:

htmlentities($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']).'?upload_message=image%20uploaded#'.$folder 

[Derokorian]

If anchors don't work you could use the following as a work around. Change the anchor to another GET variable... something like:

<?php
header('Location: http://www.example.com/index.php?folder='.$folder);
// Then on the page in question add somewhere:
?>

<?php if(isset($_GET['folder'])):?>
<script>window.location.href=#<?php echo $_GET['folder']; ?>;</script>
<?php endif; ?>