PHP page redirect

Question

Can PHP make a redirect call after executing a function? I am creating a function on the completion of which I want it to redirect to a file located in the same root folder. Can it be done?

if (...) {
    // I am using echo here.
} else if ($_SESSION['qnum'] > 10) { 
    session_destroy();
    echo "Some error occured.";
    // Redirect to "user.php".
}

I serach about this and i find related this answer in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13539752/redirect-function/13539808 — user1972007, Nov 26 '12 at 09:52

score 302 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 27 '19 at 02:47

302

Yes, you would use the header function.

/* Redirect browser */
header("Location: http://www.yourwebsite.com/user.php"); 
exit();

It is a good practice to call exit() right after it so that code below it does not get executed.

Also, from the documentation:

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. It is a very common error to read code with include(), or require(), functions, or another file access function, and have spaces or empty lines that are output before header() is called. The same problem exists when using a single PHP/HTML file.

This means you should not echo anything right before the header() function, as doing so will more than likely throw an error. Also, you will need to verify that this code gets run before any other output as well.

edited Jun 27 '19 at 02:47

Amjad

1,627
5
21
41

answered Jan 21 '10 at 19:57

bkildow

5,143
4
29
37

You should also set the HTTP Status to 302. – Allain Lalonde Jan 21 '10 at 20:58
7

"The second special case is the "Location:" header. Not only does it send this header back to the browser, but it also returns a REDIRECT (302) status code to the browser unless the 201 or a 3xx status code has already been set." – colithium Jul 15 '10 at 22:14
4

I'm bothered by "afterwords". – Gellie Ann Dec 29 '16 at 06:04
1

Use `die` instead of `exit` to prevent only exiting the function. – Pete Jun 07 '18 at 06:11

score 52 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 22 '18 at 20:00

52

Using a javascript as a failsafe will ensure the user is redirected (even if the headers have already been sent). Here you go:

// $url should be an absolute url
function redirect($url){
    if (headers_sent()){
      die('<script type="text/javascript">window.location=\''.$url.'\';</script‌>');
    }else{
      header('Location: ' . $url);
      die();
    }    
}

If you need to properly handle relative paths, I've written a function for that (but that's outside the scope of the question).

edited Jan 22 '18 at 20:00

mcw

3,500
1
31
33

answered Jan 21 '10 at 20:00

brianreavis

11,562
3
43
50

11

how descriptive. – brianreavis Jan 21 '10 at 20:57
8

Change this line to this and it will... `die('');` – Gabe Apr 02 '10 at 15:02
1

The above function with Gabe's fix works! – Nitzan Wilnai Oct 14 '13 at 19:56
2

fine unless user has JS disabled. – RozzA Jul 07 '17 at 01:38
2

In which case you could use a meta redirect `die('');` – Sam Denty Sep 19 '17 at 22:08

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 04 '15 at 14:18

17

Simple way is to use:

  echo '<script>window.location.href = "the-target-page.php";</script>';

answered Jul 04 '15 at 14:18

CrownFord

709
5
15

score 13 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 12 '13 at 05:32

13

   $url='the/url/you/want/to/go';
   echo '<META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT="1; '.$url.'">';

this works for me fine.

answered Jun 12 '13 at 05:32

Thusitha Sumanadasa

1,669
2
22
30

1

this works for me too. Thanks – Liza Nov 16 '15 at 05:05
Worked for me as well – Naveed Ahmad Mar 27 '17 at 15:50
Yep, this was a life-saver for me; I dynamically populate page titles and body ids from a header include so no matter what, I was always going to have sent headers. And for me this is just a web form bot response. Nice one, thanks. – SteveCinq Mar 29 '17 at 06:02
this worked for me too. :) don't know why this is not at the top. :( – Prabal Thakur May 11 '17 at 09:31
this worked for me also. Thank you. – Akash M Mar 20 '18 at 11:18

score 8 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 21 '10 at 20:57

8

header( "Location: http://www.domain.com/user.php" );

But you can't first do an echo, and then redirect.

edited Jan 21 '10 at 20:57

Allain Lalonde

91,574
70
187
238

answered Jan 21 '10 at 19:57

code-zoop

7,312
8
47
56

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited Aug 04 '15 at 12:35

3

<?php

    http_redirect("relpath", array("name" => "value"), true, HTTP_REDIRECT_PERM);

?>

edited Aug 04 '15 at 12:35

user229044

232,980
40
330
338

answered Aug 04 '15 at 10:54

user3164291

49
7

Note that http_redirect is part of PECL pecl_http that is not built into PHP by default. – Jan Turoň Oct 16 '22 at 11:43

score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 08 '17 at 09:21

As metioned by nixxx adding ob_start() before adding any php code will prevent the headers already sent error.

It worked for me

The code below also works. But it first loads the page and then redirects when I use it.

echo '<META HTTP-EQUIV=REFRESH CONTENT="1; '.$redirect_url.'">';

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 15 '13 at 11:55

2

You can use this code to redirect in php

<?php
/* Redirect browser */
header("Location: http://example.com/");
/* Make sure that code below does not get executed when we redirect. */
exit;
?>

answered Dec 15 '13 at 11:55

Mahdiyah Al-kaff

21
1

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jan 21 '10 at 19:56

0

Yes.

In essence, as long as nothing is output, you can do whatever you want (kill a session, remove user cookies, calculate Pi to 'n' digits, etc.) prior to issuing a location header.

answered Jan 21 '10 at 19:56

John Parker

54,048
11
129
129

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered May 26 '16 at 17:31

if you want to include the redirect in your php file without necessarily having it at the top, you can activate output buffering at the top, then call redirect from anywhere within the page. Example;

 <?php
 ob_start(); //first line
 ... do some work here
 ... do some more
 header("Location: http://www.yourwebsite.com/user.php"); 
 exit();
 ... do some work here
 ... do some more

score -1 · Answer 11 · answered Jan 21 '10 at 19:55

-1

The header() function does this:

header("Location: user.php");

answered Jan 21 '10 at 19:55

Please use absolute URLs according to the HTTP specification. – Gumbo Jan 21 '10 at 19:56
True, but make sure you remove the echo first or you might experience a "Headers allready send" ;) – fijter Jan 21 '10 at 19:56

PHP page redirect

11 Answers11

Linked

Related