how to redirect from one page to another?

[ivytony]

I don't really know how to phrase my question better,  so let's put it this way:

 

I have a cloaked affiliate link, say something like this http://www.mywebsite.com/affiliate_id=1000 for this actual affiliate link  http://www.merchant1.com/index.php?affiliate=1000.

 

A deal info is posted for this product: http://www.merchant1.com/categories/subcategories/products/hot/products1.html. When users click on this product link, I'd like them to be directed to http://www.merchant1.com/index.php?affiliate=1000 (through my cloaked link?) first so that my affiliate ID can be transmitted to the merchant. A few seconds later, the user will be redirected to the above product link for them to make purchases. I am wondering how I can do this in PHP?

 

I'm not sure if I make myself understood  ???

 

Thanks!!!

 

 

 

 

[hitman6003]

you can redirect the user from page to page using the header command...

 

header("location: page.php");

[ivytony]

but how do you control the time interval between the two redirections?

 

thanks a lot!

[p2grace]

You could use a sleep function.

 

sleep(2); // will pause for two seconds before continuing
header("location: page.php");

[ivytony]

wow, thank you so much! I appreciate it.

[p2grace]

No problem If it works could you mark the topic as solved, thanks

[ivytony]

But I think one more question for you:

<?php

header("Location: http://www.merchant1.com/index.php?affiliate=1000");
sleep(6); // will pause for 6 seconds before continuing
header("location: http://www.merchant1.com/categories/subcategories/products/hot/products1.html");

?>

 

I have this above code in my redirection controller, I am wondering if it's correct. Because I can only see the products page without showing the merchant front page. Is this correct?

 

thanks again!

[p2grace]

No, php will finish processing the code before it redirects.  So once it redirects it doesn't know to finish processing the code.  In other words you can't do two redirects from the same script.  You'd need to redirect to a page, and from that page redirect again, or show the affiliate in an iframe or something so you can redirect the parent page.

[laffin]

If the intermediate pages are on yer site, u can use something like

html meta refresh tag

 

providing u with the timeout u need as well as the redirect.

 

however if the pages in question are not on yer site. you may have to use frames and some javascript.

[rofl90]

You'd have to sleep before doing the first header() i believe

[laffin]

The link provided with the META tag dusn need sleep, it provides it for u.