passing a message / variable on a header redirect

[goatdog]

ok i want to know the best way to do this.

Now this is without using forms which would make it easy.

 

let's say there's a directory listing, you view one of the items in the directory and you want to delete it, so you hit the delete button, it deletes the item and redirects you back to the directory listing, but at the top of that listing i want it to show a message to the user saying, the item has been successfully deleted

 

now the only way that i can think of doing this is with sessions, but is that the best way?

set the session in the delete clause

 

if(isset($_REQUEST['delete_item'])){

//delete query here

$_SESSION['message'] = "item successfully deleted";

header("location:directory listing");


//then on the main page

if(isset($_SESSION['message']){

echo $_SESSION['message'] ;

unset($_SESSION['message'] );

 

does that look like a proper way to do it or do you have a better suggestion?

 

thanks

[rhodesa]

yup, sessions is the way i usually do it. the only other other good option is to pass a key that refers to a message as a GET variable. so, keep a list of messages somewhere in an associative array like this:

<?php
  $messages = array(
    'delete_success' => 'Item successfully deleted',
    'delete_fail' => 'Failed to delete item',
  );
?>

 

then in your redirect:

header("location:directorylisting.php?msg=delete_success");

then on your directory listing you can look up the text for the message.

 

again, i prefer the SESSION option, but this is an alternative

[goatdog]

thanks, the array is a good idea for multiple messages, but would it repeat if the page is refreshed?

with the session it gets unset so you can refresh the page and it won't show again

 

[rhodesa]

yes, it would still show