Approved method to navigate between pages on same website - php

Question

I have researched many places to find an answer to this question, but they never quite answer my real question: What is the best/approved way to move to a new page within the same website? I have read that it is bad to use window.location because search engines will think you are hiding something. But, when I don't want to open a new window (window.open), then I don't know how else to do it. I use href anchors in links and form actions, where appropriate. But when I have menus or buttons with onclick, then I need something else.
Here's an snippet of my code:
my javascript: (with one option commented)
function gotoCat() {
var catcdF = document.catSelect.catcd.value;
<?php
echo "window.location.href='http://www.mysite.org".$pgmdir."services/busMenu.php?catF='+catcdF; ";
/*
echo "window.open('http://www.mysite.org".$pgmdir."services/busMenu.php?catF='+catcdF,'','resizable=1,scrollbars=1,toolbar=1,top=50,left=300,width=950,height=800,location=0'); ";
*/
?>
}
My dynamic SELECT list in a form (within PHP):
echo " <select name='catcd' id='catcd' size='8' onclick=gotoCat() > \n";
// display list of categories
if ($numcats == 0) { // print message text only
echo "<option value='0' >".$catMsg."</option> \n";
}
else {
for ($i=1; $i<=$numcats; $i++) {
$catcd_db = $catAry[$i][1];
$catName_db = $catAry[$i][2];
echo "<option value='".$catcd_db."'> ".$catName_db." </option> \n";
}
}
echo "</select>";
So, as you can see, I just want a method to allow the user a choice and then automatically go to the correct web page once selected. This is not always in a select list. Often it's when they want to exit or get an error:
if (mysqli_connect_errno()) {
echo "<br/> <p style='text-align:center;'> <button type='button'
class='buttonStyle' style='padding: 4px 20px;' value='Exit' ";
echo "onClick=\"window.location.href='http://www.mysite.org/services/catSelbus.php?rc=1&func=Rev'\" > ";
echo "Exit </button></p> ";
}
I cannot use "go back" because they need to go to a prior page, not the form they came from.
So, unless my navigation methods are really off-the-mark, I guess I need to know the acceptable method for using javascript onClick to move to the next page in the same website. Is window.location okay, or should I use something else?
Any opinions or suggestions are welcome!

Answer 1

To navigate to another page using Javascript, use:
window.location.href = "url";
That's how it's done and there's nothing wrong about it.
For the sake of argument, you could create a hidden link and simulate a click on it, but as I said, there's really no need.

Answer 2

You can use php header('location') instead:
<form action="submit.php">
<input type="hidden" value="test" name="hidden1" />
<input type="submit" Value="Exit" ... />
submit.php
<?php
if (isset($_POST['hidden1'])
{
header('Location: http://www.mysite.org/services/catSelbus.php?rc=1&func=Rev');
exit;
}
?>
More info about header('Location ...');:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.header.php
Instead of a hidden, you use your select's value and get it via the $_POST variable.