IIS, header() problem

[planix]

Hi,

I know that there is a problem with IIS and redirecting using the header() function. But, does anyone have a workaround for this code?

The purpose of the code is to build an expression ($url) to redirect to and then redirect to that built location.

 function redirect($url, $includeJournal = true) {
                if (!preg_match('!^https?://!i', $url)) {
                        $url = Request::getBaseUrl() . '/' . $url;
                }
                header("Location: $url");

                exit();
        }

The problem is, obviously, that nothing happens because it is IIS trying to use the header() function and doing some obscure thing with the 302 (whatever that is!) page.

Anyway, can somebody give me any clues as to how to redirect the page without using location() or by adding some smart bit of meta tag processing?

Many thanx

Alistair

 

[sleipnir214]

Is the URL your script is using with the "Location:" header an absolute URL or a relative URL?


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[planix]

I am pretty sure that it is an absolute URL. The variable resolves to something like "

https://discors.jcu.edu.au/ojsb/classes/install/".

But, I must say I haven't really got a good understanding of what an absolute versus a relative URL is.

Thanks.

Alistair

 

[sleipnir214]

This is an absolute link:

http://www.giants.lair/fee/fi/foe/fum.html

This kind of link absolutely defines where the page can be found.

This is a relative link: /fee/fi/foe/fum.html Such links only mean something relative to another page or site.


Also, have you tried prepending "nph-" to your PHP script's filename? The "No Parse Headers" prepend can make IIS leave your headers alone.


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[planix]

Thanks. That actually makes some sense to me. I think I have a hard time understanding the file structure or servers so the idea of absolute and relative gets mixed up with whether I am thinking server file structure or web file structure.

I will try the 'nph' idea. Does that generally lead to IIS leaving Cookie transactions alone as well. I know there is the problem of it ignoring Cookies if you send a header call as well. I just wondered, not for this problem, whether that would fix this issue as well.

Cheers

Alistair

 

[sleipnir214]

Microsoft has a unique interpretation of the HTTP spec, particularly as it applies to headers and response codes. If you dig around in the Microsoft knowledge base, you'll find some article where they deliberately wrote IIS so that it won't both send cookies and use the "Location" header in a single transaction.


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[planix]

So, is there a straightforward, generic fix to this?

I have read some posts about using Meta tags to refresh in some circumstances. Is it possible to say that, when sending cookies and using the Location header in IIS, you should first call;

header(parameters)

then call

<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"0;URL=$sUrl\">

or some such?

Basically, I keep running across this problem in slightly different contexts. I want to know what my general response could be so I can adpat some coding solution to the range of difficulties.

Cheers

Alistair

 

[sleipnir214]

There are only two workarounds that I know of. One is the use of the META tag. The other is the "nph-" filename prefix.


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