header('Location: ...') is not giving immediate redirect

[henryrhenryr]

I'm using Win2k with Apache 2, PHP 5.2 for my local test server.

My problem is that I think the header('Locatio n ...') function isn't sending the header immediately and the rest of my script is running before the page redirects.

I am using a $_SESSION array to transfer messages from one page to the next. I want the message available only once, then it should be deleted. I had been using the technique something like this:

[CODE=PHP]
if (isset($_POST['form_submitted '])) {
//handle_form
$_SESSION['message']=$errorMessages ;
header('Locatio n: http://www.thissite.co m/new_page.php');
}
if (isset($_SESSIO N['message'])) {
$showMessage = $_SESSION['message'];
unset($_SESSION['message']);
}
echo $showMessage;
echo '<form action="' . $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] . '" method="post">< input type="hidden" name="form_subm itted" value="v" /></form>
[/CODE]

//What I want:
The form is submitted, the page reloads to itself. The form checks everything and records any errors to $errorMessages. It transfers these to the $_SESSION array and it reloads to a new page.

//What seems to happen:
As before... but after the form check, it seems to run the rest of the script, and as the $_SESSION['message'] variable is now set, it goes into the part which unset()s that variable. THEN after this it redirects. Now of course the $_SESSION['message'] is unset and I get no message!

Does this make any sense? It's a bit convoluted. This is a highly simplified version of my page just to illustrate the process. Any help is very much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!!

Henry

[pbmods]

Heya, henryrhenryr.

Thanks for using CODE tags! Did you know that you can specify a language for your CODE tags to make your source code easier to read?

You will still need to use [/CODE] to close your code blocks, regardless of the language, but you can the use one of these tags to open your code block:

[CODE=html]
[CODE=javascript]
[CODE=php]

and so on.

Thanks!

MODERATOR

[pbmods]

Heya, henryrhenryr.

Call exit() after you set the redirect header:

[code=php]
header( ... );
exit();
[/code]

[henryrhenryr]

Hello pbmods!

I can't believe I didn't think of that! Genious. Thanks so much!

Henry

[pbmods]

Heya, Henry.

Hello pbmods!

I can't believe I didn't think of that! Genious. Thanks so much!

Henry

Glad to hear you got it working! Good luck with your project, and if you ever need anything, post back anytime :)