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PHP Redirect

by Sanjib Ahmad
Posted on May 18, 2008

A PHP Redirect automatically transfers a web user from one URL to another. For example, typing foo.com in the browser automatically transfers the user to another URL bar.com.

The PHP Redirect command:

<?php
header("location: [some-url]");
?>

Replace [some-url] with the URL where you want the redirection to take place.

For example,

header("location: ./version2/index.html");
=>redirect to "index.html" page in subfolder called "version2"

header("location: http://www.yahoo.com");
=>redirect to a website called yahoo.com

If PHP is not available, it's also possible to use other redirects:

* HTTP Redirects
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="[time]; URL=[some-url]">

Replace [time] with seconds. This will pause the browser for the specified number of seconds. Replace [some-url] with the target URL you want to redirect.

For example,
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="5; URL=http://www.yahoo.com">

The above HTTP based redirect needs to be in the <header></header> region of the HTML code.


* JavaScript Redirects

<script language=javascript>
setTimeout("location.href='[some-url]'", [time]);
</script>

Replace [time] with milliseconds. This will pause the browser for the specified number of seconds. Replace [some-url] with the target URL you want to redirect.

For example,
setTimeout("location.href='http://www.yahoo.com'", 5000);

The above JavaScript based redirect can be either in the <header></header> or <body></body> region of the HTML code.

Usually a PHP redirect is much more reliable than other form of redirects like HTTP redirect or JavaScript based redirects. For example a JavaScript redirect may not work if a user's browser settings has JavaScript turned off.

The reason why PHP redirects will work no matter what settings users have on their browser is because PHP is server side script. It will not depend on browser settings that may affect JavaScript which is parsed on the client-side/user-side.


About the Author
Sanjib Ahmad, Freelance Writer and Product Consultant for Marc8.com ( http://www.marc8.com/ ). You are free to use this article in its entirety as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content, and include the resource box listed above.







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