redirect using header()

[Strangeplant]

Hi,

I want to go back to a previous webpage after I check the status of a user. I can use

header("location: index.php")

to go to a main page, but when I use something else by either assigning a path and page to a variable inside a page, as

header("location: ".$where)

or using the system as

header("location: ".$SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'])

it doesn't work. How can I do this?

[Twey]

You shouldn't use relative URLs in a Location header.

[Strangeplant]

Well, I've read that it should be something like

$host  = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$uri  = rtrim(dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']), '/\\');
$extra = 'mypage.php';
header("Location: http://$host$uri/$extra");

The problem is not with that, but getting it to actually work with a variable. I can't seem to use either of the two examples in first post or

  header("location: $where");

but the first example works fine when its a literal. I'll work on the rest to clean it up later after I get this tiny bit correct.

[Strangeplant]

BTW, am using php 4.4.2 and mysql 5.0 (not my choice).

[Twey]

No, that's fine.

Make sure the variable contains what you think it does -- echo it somewhere.

[Strangeplant]

yes, I'll do that - good idea, because when I use this:

	$host  = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
	$uri  = rtrim(dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']), '/\\');
	header("Location: http://$host$uri/$where");

it redirects me out of the server and to http://www.noaa.gov/

[Strangeplant]

Ok, I've been wight with getting the page to redirect even though the code was changed back to its simplest form. Redirection was being done even though the code said not to, even after restarting the browser and clearing the cache, cookies.

So, the question becomes, how do I redirect back to the first (calling) page, what ever it may be? This is getting so frustrating that I'm going out for chinese food! (and in Harlem NYC, that's bad!) this has been bugging me for two days! The code executes so very fast that nothing is/can be echoed.

[Twey]

Comment out the redirection line so you can see what the echo says?

[Strangeplant]

my variable is still null. Even when I try to use a session variable as in:

session_start(); 
session_register("where"); 
$where = "http://earth.engr.ccny.cuny.edu/noaa/wc/Lidar/chainedmenu2.php";

What can I do to get back to the original page?

[Twey]

If your variable is null, that would explain why the problem.

Where do you define it? How do you retrieve it?