returning to previous page....?

[barbs75]

Hey guys,

 

The problem i am having is with navigating back to a previous page in php...

 

What i am trying to do is, when a user tries to go to a certain page, they have to be logged in, otherwise they can't access it. So what i do is check that the user is logged on, if they are not then they are directed to my login page where they can log in.

 

But in my script i have a header which directs them to the profile page, but i dont want them to go there, i want them to be directed back to the page that they were TYRING to access....

 

I really can't figure out how to do this.....searched google and stuff too, but nothing comes up in the example i am trying to do..

 

Can anyone give me insight on how to do this??

 

cheers

 

Craig

[DarkWater]

Store it in the URL when you redirect them to the login page.  I've seen sites with like:

 

login.php?redirect=somepage.php

[.josh]

inside your condition that checks if user is logged in, before the header redirect, do

 

$_SESSION['currentpage'] = 'page.php';

 

or

 

$_SESSION['currentpage'] = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];

 

and then in your login script, where you send them to the default logged in page upon successful login, before the header redirect, do

 

$location = ($_SESSION['currentpage'])?  $_SESSION['currentpage'] : "profile.php";
header("Location: $location");

 

edit:

 

or yeah, you can pass it via GET method like darkwater mentioned

 

 

[DarkWater]

Yeah, I was thinking that too.  It would work.

[discomatt]

What? Remove the header redirect to the profile page... or simply have

 

if ( $loggedOn == TRUE )
   header( 'Location: profile.php' );
else
   header( 'Location: login.php' );

 

Store it in the URL when you redirect them to the login page.  I've seen sites with like:

 

login.php?redirect=somepage.php

 

A cleaner way would be to use sessions to track the previous page the user has been on, I do this all the time.

 

At the bottom of my scripts i have $_SESSION['lastPage'] = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

[DarkWater]

Yeah yeah, I realized sessions right after I posted and I didn't feel like editing because I knew someone would suggest it. =P

[the shig]

could use

 

<?php
// login.php
$page_just_on = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
$query_string = $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] != '' ? '?' . $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] : '';
$redirect_page = $page_just_on . $query_string;
?>

 

store $redirect_page as a hidden input field in the login form.

then after processing the login and checking their details, just redirect to the page.

 

[DarkWater]

HTTP referrers are not reliable.

[the shig]

HTTP referrers are not reliable.

 

didn't know this.

 

Also, imagine link from website A to website B login form using the referer method.

login... then get redirected back to website A. wtf catastrophe

 

[unsider]

I use this method..

 

Even though it's been discussed in a way, just giving practical examples

 

 if(isset($_SESSION['url'])){
         $this->referrer = $_SESSION['url'];
}else{
         $this->referrer = "/";
}

 

Then call the referrer from outside the class... i.e

$session->referrer

 

Although I've only recently started using this method, so I don't know how effective it is, or reliable, etc..

 

If you guys figure out a better waty, let me know

[barbs75]

hey guys,

 

cheers for your overwhelming response!! you were all a great help thankyou!!

 

I'm having a slight problem now to do with directories....

 

i have my login script within a folder called 'function' so when the login page is called, it goes:

 

/function/login.php

 

so when i try redirecting to a page not in this directory it can't find it, because it isn't the same directory as the login script, say if i was trying to redirect to index.php it would do the following:

 

/function/index.php

 

does anyone know how i go back through a directory??

 

cheers for your help guys

 

Craig