Redirect in PHP without use of header method

Question

This contact.php form was working to handle a submit and then redirect to a new page and then all of a sudden just stopped working. I have tried adding error handling and also moving header to the top in front of all other, but neither works. The form is still submitting the data as expected, it's just the redirect that doesn't work. Any ideas would be appreciated.

<?php 
include 'config.php';
$post = (!empty($_POST)) ? true : false;
if($post)
{
    $email = trim($_POST['email']);
    $subject = "Downloaded Course Units";
    $error = '';
    if(!$error)
    {
        $mail = mail(WEBMASTER_EMAIL, $subject, $message, 
        "From: ".$email."\r\n"
        ."Reply-To: ".$email."\r\n"
        ."X-Mailer: PHP/" . phpversion());
        if($mail)
        {
            echo 'OK';
            header('location: http://www.google.com.au/');
            exit();
        }
    }
}
?>

you may find this useful: -> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/768431/how-to-make-a-redirect-in-php — Marco Mura, Nov 25 '14 at 09:55
PHP headers are the right way to do this. Javascript / Meta tags are not as reliable. Remove the echo 'OK'; line (and any other page output generating lines) otherwise the header redirect will not work (unless you have output buffering on in the php.ini)... exit() is required otherwise script execution will continue! — Paul Norman, Nov 25 '14 at 12:00

Pupil · Answer 1 · 2017-10-13T03:46:52.897

31

Use javascript.

Instead of

header('location: http://www.google.com.au/');

Use,

?>
<script type="text/javascript">
window.location.href = 'http://www.google.com.au/';
</script>
<?php

It will redirect even if something is output on your browser.

But, one precaution is to be made: Javascript redirection will redirect your page even if there is something printed on the page.

Make sure that it does not skip any logic written in PHP.

edited Oct 13 '17 at 03:46

answered Nov 25 '14 at 09:58

Pupil

23,528
5
42
64

And what about a meta refresh? This would be a solution without JS, as the question is referring to PHP. – j3141592653589793238 Mar 19 '18 at 12:33

score 23 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 31 '17 at 01:38

23

Replace the header('location: http://www.google.com.au/'); line with the below code to redirect in php without using header function.

$URL="http://yourwebsite.com/";
echo "<script type='text/javascript'>document.location.href='{$URL}';</script>";
echo '<META HTTP-EQUIV="refresh" content="0;URL=' . $URL . '">';

If you're wondering that why I have used both Meta tag and JavaScript to Redirect, then the answer is very simple.

If JavaScript is Disabled in the Browser, then meta tag will redirect the page.

edited Jan 31 '17 at 01:38

Heraclitus

80
11

answered Apr 09 '16 at 10:53

Shubham Kumar

1,193
13
5

1

Then you should place javascript before html META. Because JS can be disabled but not HTML! Isn't it? – Liakat Hossain Oct 12 '16 at 01:11
1

it's working but every time page is refreshing often and often. – Sarfaraj Sipai Jan 18 '18 at 11:17
I am using the meta tag to refresh php page, but I am wondering if this is bad practice? – PA-GW Oct 03 '19 at 14:06
This is not a PHP solution, please re-read the question title if you have any doubts :) – Ravi Mattar Apr 19 '22 at 18:01

Javlon Tulkinov · Answer 3 · 2014-11-25T10:02:15.727

7

header not working after include, echo. try again without include, echo. OR instead of function header use

echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; URL=http://www.google.com.au/">';

edited Nov 25 '14 at 10:02

answered Nov 25 '14 at 09:56

Javlon Tulkinov

542
1
5
20

score 4 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 11 '18 at 01:17

4

I solved this with:

function GoToNow ($url){
    echo '<script language="javascript">window.location.href ="'.$url.'"</script>';
}

Use : GoToNow ('http://example.com/url-&error=value');

answered Apr 11 '18 at 01:17

Gregory Santana

51
3

score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Aug 15 '19 at 03:17

If you want to redirect to another page after html code then use location.href javascript method.

Refer to this sample code:

<html>
    <head>
        <title> Using the href property of the Location object</title>
    </head>
    <body>
        <script language="JavaScript">
        <!--
            function show(){
                 document.location.href ="http://www.java2s.com";
            }
        -->
        </script>
        <form name="form1">
            <br>
            <input type="button" name="sethref" value="Set href" onClick='show()'>
            <br>
        </form>
    </body>
    </html>

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered May 15 '20 at 00:24

In addition to the above answers, you can use the following JavaScript code for both the document and the main window, as well as in iframes:

<script type="text/javascript" >
        window.open('http://www.google.com.au/', '_self');
</script>

_self Opens the linked document in the same frame as it was.

In the above command, the values of the second parameter are similar to the values of the target attribute in the tag A(<a></a>) in HTML, which can use the following values in addition to the _self value:

_blank Opens the linked document in a new window or tab

_parent Opens the linked document in the parent frame

_top Opens the linked document in the full body of the window

framename Opens the linked document in a named frame

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 25 '21 at 17:54

0

You should use the exit() function to stop every execution of script below your redirect function if you're using javascript. Else, if someone off the javascript in their browser, the statements below will be executed.

edited Oct 25 '21 at 17:54

Saugat Jonchhen

362
5
16

answered Oct 25 '21 at 15:28

Tarnue Pythagoras Brobor

1
1

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 07 '22 at 20:14

Just a quick script using HEREDOC with PHP which allows you to store the redirection script into a variable and is quite readable and improve reusability.

    $homePage = "'http://localhost:8000/'";
    $redirect = <<<REDIRECT
    <script type="text/javascript">
        window.location.href = $homePage;
    </script>
    REDIRECT;

That later in your code, as soon as you need spit out with echo

echo $redirect;

Even better, we can add it in a function called redirect with some default variables too.

function redirect(string $slug = '/', string $root='http://localhost:8000'): string
{
    return <<<REDIRECT
        <script type="text/javascript">
            window.location.href = '$root$slug' ;
        </script>
        REDIRECT;
}

Go to default http://localhost:8000/

 echo redirect();

Go to Google Maps

echo redirect(slug : '/maps', root: 'https://www.google.com');

Redirect in PHP without use of header method

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