My web hosting provider does not permit to use curl FOLLOWLOCATION option so I'm trying to
do it manually by using the header function.
My problem is that I need to keep my PHP script running and to be able to get the redirected URL data for parsing.
How do I do that?
Technically the PHP script continues running after the header () function is called. How you get URL data is another question. Can you not use get_file_contents () or readfile () on the URL?
You read the RAW data the request returns, you check for the redirect header(s), fetch the related URL(s) and do a new get with that URL (dry, rinse, repeat). As simple as that...
Alternatively you could stop being so lazy, check the curl_setopt documentation in the PHP reference manual and find solutions - by reading the comments at the bottom of the page - on how to solve this problem of course.
Related
usually when i want to redirect from one php page to another php page of same project i'm using
header("location:somepage.php");
This will cause more calls between client and server. What i want to do is instead of sending redirect header, i want to stop execution of requested page and pass request object or request information to the another page which i want to redirect. In this case single request will be enough. I guess this kind of functionality available in jsp. Is same thing available in php which i don't know?
As #DanSherwin commented, you probably want to use include. You might do something like this:
firstpage.php:
if(/* Some condition when you want to do a redirect */){
include 'somepage.php';
exit;
}
This runs the code from somepage.php immediately, as though it was cut and pasted into firstpage.php**, and then it exits right afterward as though you redirected away from firstpage.php.
** caveat: watch out for variable scope.
I have been writing a module for our billing system at work, and it works beautifully. Unfortunately the API lacks a function that I need to terminate services immediately leaving me with the only option of calling the URL directly at...
http://www.website.com/billing/admin/clientsservices.php?userid=69264&id=68405&modop=terminate
As the module needs to continue to run without redirecting to that URL, how can I execute that from my PHP script?
You could simply use file_get_contents();
<?php
file_get_contents('http://www.website.com/billing/admin/clientsservices.php?userid=69264&id=68405&modop=terminate');
?>
And it will be called.
Why not just use curl to POST the data to the URL instead of using GET?
http://php.net/manual/en/book.curl.php
So I know the general rule of thumb is after doing a header redirect in PHP, you should call exit() to avoid having extra code running, but I want to know if you put code after the redirect header, if it will always run?
I was doing some research on various ways of tracking referrals in Google Analytics and came across this post: Google Analytics Tips & Tricks – Tracking 301 Redirects in Google Analytics
It recommends doing something like this:
<?
Header( “HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently” );
Header( “Location: http://www.new-url.com” );
?>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src=’” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-YOURPROFILE-ID”);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>
From the way I've always understood the header() function, it's up to the browser and it can run the redirect whenever it wants to. So there's no guarantee the JavaScript would actually begin or finish executing prior to the redirect occurring.
PHP's documentation for the header() function indicates the reason for exiting after a redirect is to "make sure that code below does not get executed when we redirect." That doesn't sound like they guarantee all following code will run, just that it could happen.
Regardless, I found a different way to actually manage the tracking, but I wanted to see if I could find out how exactly header() worked in this situation..
Thanks for your help.
Using the header function in PHP only adds to the headers of the response returned by the server. It does not immediately send any data and does not immediately terminate the connection. Any code after the header call will be executed.
In particular, it's a good idea to add a response body even after doing a 301 redirect so that clients that do not support the redirect also get some descriptive response. Infact according to the HTTP 1.1 specification Section 10.3.2 -
Unless the request method was HEAD, the entity of the response SHOULD
contain a short hypertext note with a hyperlink to the new URI(s). If
the 301 status code is received in response to a request other than
GET or HEAD, the user agent MUST NOT automatically redirect the
request unless it can be confirmed by the user, since this might
change the conditions under which the request was issued.
It's a race condition. Once the redirect header is sent to the browser, the browser will close the current connection and open a new one for the redirect URL. Until that original connection is closed and Apache shuts down the script, your code will continue to execute as before.
In theory, if there was a sufficiently fast connection between the client/server, and there was no buffering anywhere in the pipeline, issuing the header would cause the script to be terminated immediately. In reality, it can be anywhere between "now" and "never" for the shutdown to be initiated.
The HTML after your Location line doesn't run inside PHP; it would run in the browser. It's up to the browser whether or not to execute the Javascript that you've included on that page; PHP has nothing to do with it.
To me, the PHP docs imply that any PHP below the header() when you send a redirect will continue to run. But it 'runs' in the PHP interpreter, dumping JS to the browser. There's no relation between what it says in the PHP docs and whether or not the JS gets run by the browser.
EDIT:
Well, as Anupam Jain pointed out, looks like that browsers do not terminate connection without getting the response body and it sounds sensible. So i rethinked my answer
That doesn't sound like they guarantee all following code will run
Exactly More likely it's a warning in case there is some sensible code that shouldn't be executed. A private page contents for example. So, beside sending header you have to also make sure that no sensitive content were sent and exit looks like quite robust solution. So, I'd phrase it as "make sure that sensible code below does not get executed when we redirect."
So there's no guarantee the JavaScript would actually begin or finish executing prior to the redirect occurring.
Exactly It seems it has nothing to do with script execution but rather with browser's will to execute anything after getting 3xx response. I think I'm gonna test it, but you can test it as well too.
I have noticed that the code does still execute and multiple headers based on if statements can cause a "redirect loop error". i made it a habit to now add in die("Redirecting..."); after every header redirect and have not see the problem persist.
I am using formmail by tactite to have the info submitted from my form get emailed to me. After the user hits the submit button, it goes to a "Thank You" page that by default just has some text, I'm trying to change that to load up a thank you page that I created and it doesn't work, what am I doing wrong?
Thanks!
Here's what doesn't work:
// MSG_THANKS_PAGE is the default page that's displayed if the
// submission is successful
// Parameters: none
$aMessages[MSG_THANKS_PAGE] = load('http://nimbledesigns.com/kelsie/thankyou.html');
This is what i had there before that DOES work:
$aMessages[MSG_THANKS_PAGE] = 'Thanks!<br /><br />'.
'Go Back'.
'';
Tere is no load() function built into PHP. Most likely what you're looing for is file_get_contents(), which'll retrieve the contents of a file (local or otherwise) as a string.
If that URL points back to your own server, you may want to save yourself a full HTTP round-trip and simply use a local path ... = file_get_contents('/path/to/that/thank/you/file.html').
File_get_Contents()
use
$aMessages[MSG_THANKS_PAGE] = file_get_contents('http://nimbledesigns.com/kelsie/thankyou.html');
instead.
Documentation
file_get_contents() - http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-get-contents.php
Alternatives'
If that file is on your server, then you may only need to do this:
$aMessages[MSG_THANKS_PAGE] = file_get_contents('thankyou.html');
That will stop PHP from using the HTTP stream connector and will use the File IO connector instead, which is going to be faster with less overhead (although the difference may only be viewable when your server is running slowly)
Redirects
You could also redirect them to the page, by issuing this command before you send any data to the browser:
header('Location: thankyou.html');
exit();
This will redirect their browser to the file. Again assuming it resides on your server. You could replace that with a the full address if required http://nimbledesigns.com/kelsie/thankyou.html
As stated earlier, file_get_contents is your best bet. There is no load() function.
But why not just redirect to the page?
It says how to here: http://www.tectite.com/fmhowto/redir.php
(I'm assuming that's the form mailer you're using, and "tactite" was a typo).
haven't used php load for a long time, but isn't it just for xml and returns an object?
is this? http://php.net/manual/en/domdocument.load.php
how can I invoke a php script on a remote server from my server code ?
I'm currently using:
header('Location: http://www.url.com/script.php?arg1=blabla');
in my code, but it doesn't work.
thanks
If you mean by invoking just "calling" it, so you only need it to run, then you can use curl.
If you mean by invoking that you want it to act the same as include, then you can't trough http (the server does ofcourse not return code, but runs it). You might be able to obtain the file trough other means (ftp?), and then include it, but that seems like a bit of a hack.
If you mean by invoking that you want to redirect the user to the page, then this should work:
header('Location: http://www.site.nl/');
exit;
(your script continues to run after a header call, so you might need to call that exit). How doens't your code work for you? (I'm guessing because you want one of the other options)
If you only want to invoke the script you can simply use $result = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/');.
Your version using header() will as said above redirect the user.
Use cURL, it gives you much wider manipulation options.