Redircting mail.php script

Question

I would like to keep the mail.php script separate from the thank you page and have it redirect there after the script has run. My following script is causing an error - headers already sent...

What do I need to change to get the header call to work correctly?

 <?php 
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['captcha_value']) && isset($_POST['text3'])){
  if($_SESSION['captcha_value'] != $_POST['text3']){
    echo "invalid captcha";
    die();  
  }
}else{
  echo "invalid captcha";
  die();
}
?>





<?php require_once('../inc/header-scripts.php'); ?>

<?php
if(isset($_POST['email'])) {

    // EDIT THE 2 LINES BELOW AS REQUIRED
    $email_to = "me@mysite.com";
    $email_subject = "NEW MESSAGE";


    function died($error) {
        // your error code can go here
        echo "We are very sorry, but there were error(s) found with the form you submitted. ";
        echo "These errors appear below.<br /><br />";
        echo $error."<br /><br />";
        echo "Please go back and fix these errors.<br /><br />";
        die();
    }

    // validation expected data exists
    if(!isset($_POST['first_name']) ||

        !isset($_POST['email']) ||
        !isset($_POST['telephone']) ||
        !isset($_POST['comments']))


        {
        died('We are sorry, but there appears to be a problem with the form you submitted.');      
    }

    $first_name = $_POST['first_name']; // required

    $email_from = $_POST['email']; // required
    $telephone = $_POST['telephone']; // not required
    $comments = $_POST['comments']; // required

    $error_message = "";
    $email_exp = '/^[A-Za-z0-9._%-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$/';
  if(!preg_match($email_exp,$email_from)) {
    $error_message .= 'The Email Address you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
  }
    $string_exp = "/^[A-Za-z .'-]+$/";
  if(!preg_match($string_exp,$first_name)) {
    $error_message .= 'The First Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
  }

  if(strlen($comments) < 2) {
    $error_message .= 'The Comments you entered do not appear to be valid.<br />';
  }



  if(strlen($error_message) > 0) {
    died($error_message);
  }
    $email_message = "";

    function clean_string($string) {
      $bad = array("content-type","bcc:","to:","cc:","href");
      return str_replace($bad,"",$string);
    }

    $email_message .= "First Name: ".clean_string($first_name)."\n";

    $email_message .= "Email: ".clean_string($email_from)."\n";
    $email_message .= "Telephone: ".clean_string($telephone)."\n";
    $email_message .= "Comments: ".clean_string($comments)."\n";


// create email headers
$headers = 'From: '.$email_from."\r\n".
'Reply-To: '.$email_from."\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
@mail($email_to, $email_subject, $email_message, $headers); 



?>

<!-- include your own success html here -->



<?php
}
?>


<?php
header('location: thank-you.php');
?>

I see a space between the beginning of the file and the PHP tag. Try removing that space. (Check out [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8028957/headers-already-sent-by-php) for a followup). — Dave Chen, Sep 05 '13 at 17:24
There are a lot of spaces in the output before you eventually invoke `header()`. Remove all of them. If you're not intending to output any content, don't output any content. — David, Sep 05 '13 at 17:26

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 05 '13 at 17:26

You have a lot of extra space, along with an HTML comment. Take out all but the opening and closing PHP braces, and remove the HTML comment line. Be aware that if the captcha fails, it's going to stay on that page without redirecting. You might want to save the error somehow ($_SESSION or $_GET variables) and redirect to the previous page.

<?php 
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['captcha_value']) && isset($_POST['text3'])){
  if($_SESSION['captcha_value'] != $_POST['text3']){
    echo "invalid captcha";
    die();  
  }
}else{
  echo "invalid captcha";
  die();
}

require_once('../inc/header-scripts.php'); 

if(isset($_POST['email'])) {

    // EDIT THE 2 LINES BELOW AS REQUIRED
    $email_to = "me@mysite.com";
    $email_subject = "NEW MESSAGE";


    function died($error) {
        // your error code can go here
        echo "We are very sorry, but there were error(s) found with the form you submitted. ";
        echo "These errors appear below.<br /><br />";
        echo $error."<br /><br />";
        echo "Please go back and fix these errors.<br /><br />";
        die();
    }

    // validation expected data exists
    if(!isset($_POST['first_name']) ||

        !isset($_POST['email']) ||
        !isset($_POST['telephone']) ||
        !isset($_POST['comments']))
        {
        died('We are sorry, but there appears to be a problem with the form you submitted.');      
    }

    $first_name = $_POST['first_name']; // required

    $email_from = $_POST['email']; // required
    $telephone = $_POST['telephone']; // not required
    $comments = $_POST['comments']; // required

    $error_message = "";
    $email_exp = '/^[A-Za-z0-9._%-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$/';
  if(!preg_match($email_exp,$email_from)) {
    $error_message .= 'The Email Address you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
  }
    $string_exp = "/^[A-Za-z .'-]+$/";
  if(!preg_match($string_exp,$first_name)) {
    $error_message .= 'The First Name you entered does not appear to be valid.<br />';
  }

  if(strlen($comments) < 2) {
    $error_message .= 'The Comments you entered do not appear to be valid.<br />';
  }



  if(strlen($error_message) > 0) {
    died($error_message);
  }
    $email_message = "";

    function clean_string($string) {
      $bad = array("content-type","bcc:","to:","cc:","href");
      return str_replace($bad,"",$string);
    }

    $email_message .= "First Name: ".clean_string($first_name)."\n";

    $email_message .= "Email: ".clean_string($email_from)."\n";
    $email_message .= "Telephone: ".clean_string($telephone)."\n";
    $email_message .= "Comments: ".clean_string($comments)."\n";


// create email headers
$headers = 'From: '.$email_from."\r\n".
'Reply-To: '.$email_from."\r\n" .
'X-Mailer: PHP/' . phpversion();
@mail($email_to, $email_subject, $email_message, $headers); 
}

header('location: thank-you.php');
?>

Done all of that and still getting the headers already sent error. Would I need an }else{ clause? — Mike, Sep 05 '13 at 17:37
You probably have some white space somewhere else in there, or an extra echo that shouldn't be there. Check the source code of the page when you get the error to see if you can spot what's going on. — aynber, Sep 05 '13 at 17:39

Redircting mail.php script

1 Answers1