Serving pages based on user input

You can read about the header function.

http://is2.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php

Ólafur Waage

2008/8/23 Prasad Chand <prasad.chand@gmail.com>:
> Hi,
>
> I am fairly new to PHP. I would like to serve a page to a user based on his
> input. Say, I have a page 1 where user has 3 options(drop down menu). Based
> on his selection I would like a php script to direct him to another page (to
> pages 2,3,4 based on what he selected). I am unable to figure how to do this
> in php. Can you please give me some pointers.
>
> Is there any function which takes path and directs the user to that page?
>
> Thanks,
> Prasad
>
> --
> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>
>

Hi,

I am fairly new to PHP. I would like to serve a page to a user based on
his input. Say, I have a page 1 where user has 3 options(drop down
menu). Based on his selection I would like a php script to direct him to
another page (to pages 2,3,4 based on what he selected). I am unable to
figure how to do this in php. Can you please give me some pointers.

Is there any function which takes path and directs the user to that page?

Thanks,
Prasad

Prasad Chand schreef:
> Hi,
>
> I am fairly new to PHP. I would like to serve a page to a user based on
> his input. Say, I have a page 1 where user has 3 options(drop down
> menu). Based on his selection I would like a php script to direct him to
> another page (to pages 2,3,4 based on what he selected). I am unable to
> figure how to do this in php. Can you please give me some pointers.
>
> Is there any function which takes path and directs the user to that page?

millions of them, but not in php itself this is the kind of thing
you have to write yourself.

you don't really want to redirect the user at all (because it's a completely
unecessary round-trip that will cause your server to have to handle another
request when you already have the required info needed to display the relevant content),
what you want to do is parse the input from the form and then run the relevant
code to generate the relevant content. e.g.

if (isset($_POST['selected_page'])) {
switch ($_POST['selected_page']) {
case 'page1':
include 'myfirstpage.php';
exit;
case 'page2':
include 'mysecondpage.php';
exit;
case 'page3':
include 'mythirdpage.php';
exit;
default:
die('go away smelly hacker!');
}
} else {
// output your page selection form here or something.
}

that's just one lame example, there are as many ways to skin this
cat as there are cats. might I suggest you go and read a few basic
tutorials because what your asking is as basic as it gets ... namely
take some user input and use it to determine what to output ...




>
> Thanks,
> Prasad
>

Ólafur Waage schreef:
> You can read about the header function.
>
> http://is2.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php

hi Ólafur,

his situation doesn't require a redirect (he only thinks it does),
and redirects suck when used unecessarily. (plenty of info on the web
about why this is so ... hunt for a 'rant' by the formidable Richard Lynch
in the archives of this list for instance)

>
> Ólafur Waage
>
> 2008/8/23 Prasad Chand <prasad.chand@gmail.com>:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am fairly new to PHP. I would like to serve a page to a user based on his
>> input. Say, I have a page 1 where user has 3 options(drop down menu). Based
>> on his selection I would like a php script to direct him to another page (to
>> pages 2,3,4 based on what he selected). I am unable to figure how to do this
>> in php. Can you please give me some pointers.
>>
>> Is there any function which takes path and directs the user to that page?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Prasad
>>
>> --
>> PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/)
>> To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
>>
>>
>

At 2:03 PM -0700 8/23/08, Prasad Chand wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I am fairly new to PHP. I would like to serve a page to a user based
>on his input. Say, I have a page 1 where user has 3 options(drop
>down menu). Based on his selection I would like a php script to
>direct him to another page (to pages 2,3,4 based on what he
>selected). I am unable to figure how to do this in php. Can you
>please give me some pointers.
>
>Is there any function which takes path and directs the user to that page?
>
>Thanks,
>Prasad

Why use PHP for this?

Standard html with css works quite well for this and is by far more common.

I see no need to bring the php sledgehammer to drive this thumbtack.

Cheers,

tedd

--
-------
http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com

At 1:21 AM +0100 8/24/08, Ashley Sheridan wrote:
>On Sat, 2008-08-23 at 20:07 -0400, tedd wrote:
>>At 2:03 PM -0700 8/23/08, Prasad Chand wrote:
>>
>> >I am fairly new to PHP. I would like to serve a page to a user based
>>>on his input. Say, I have a page 1 where user has 3 options(drop
>>>down menu). Based on his selection I would like a php script to
>>>direct him to another page (to pages 2,3,4 based on what he
>>>selected). I am unable to figure how to do this in php. Can you
>>>please give me some pointers.
>>>
>> >Is there any function which takes path and directs the user to that page?
>>
>>Why use PHP for this?
>>
>>Standard html with css works quite well for this and is by far more common.
>>
>>I see no need to bring the php sledgehammer to drive this thumbtack.
>>
>>
>Standard HTML and CSS will not do, you'd have to use JavaScript to
>guarantee it all works correctly on the browser, but this is a bit
>like using a dozen thumbs for one thumbtack! If you do it entirely
>on the client-side, then each time a visitor wants any of the
>"pages", the whole lot is sent to the browser, which is a real bad
>idea!


I was addressing providing the user with pages and not the drop-down
menu thing. If you want to entertain a drop-down menu, please review
this:

http://sperling.com/examples/menuh/

That uses html, css, and javascript -- and while I show how to do it,
I would not recommend it for anyone.

Besides, there's no way that php can deliver a drop-down menu because
the user's action are client-side. I've thought about using php with
ajax, but why? It won't work any better.

But, without the drop-down issue, then css and html will deliver
pages quite nicely, like this:

http://sperling.com/index.php

My right side navigation is totally css and html. If you don't want
right navigation, then there's a lot more possibilities, check out:

http://css.maxdesign.com.au/listamatic/

All of these are designed to provide the end-user with the topic
(i.e., page) of their choice -- all without php.

Now, is this something that I'm not getting? Because all of this is
pretty obvious to me. Where am I wrong?

Cheers,

tedd

--
-------
http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com

At 9:55 PM -0700 8/23/08, Prasad Chand wrote:
>This is off-topic, but the reason I was touchy about includes was
>because it could create seo problems.
>
>http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=31519


Bzzzzttt -- nope -- two different types of "includes".

The link above is discussing having data included the url and not php
includes. The advice/code that Jochem gave you was using php includes
which is a completely different critter.

I use php includes for all my sites and don't have any problem
whatsoever with SEO.

Cheers,

tedd

--
-------
http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com

On Sun, 2008-08-24 at 01:32 +0200, Jochem Maas wrote:
> Ólafur Waage schreef:
> > You can read about the header function.
> >
> > http://is2.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php
>
> hi Ólafur,
>
> his situation doesn't require a redirect (he only thinks it does),
> and redirects suck when used unecessarily. (plenty of info on the web
> about why this is so ... hunt for a 'rant' by the formidable Richard Lynch
> in the archives of this list for instance)

Oh dear, not this BS again. If the content is different then perform a
redirect. Do you really want your login page to be indexed as your
homepage? Lynch's arguments on this were weak.

Cheers,
Rob.
--
http://www.interjinn.com
Application and Templating Framework for PHP

At 10:02 PM -0700 8/23/08, Prasad Chand wrote:
>Thanks for that information. But in my case I need to serve pages
>based on selection of US states. There are 50 of them, so generating
>pages dynamically would have been a nice idea.


Really, there are 50 of them!?!? :-)

You don't have to generate 50 pages dynamically to do it -- try this:

http://webbytedd.com/bbb/map/

That demo is done with just pure css -- no php nor javascript.

Plus each one of those States can be linked to another page -- AND--
it is user friendly, validates, accessible, and SEO friendly. What
more could anyone want?

If you don't know php, then I think the best way to ask a question on
this list by telling us what you want to do rather than asking
specific php questions trying to do something they way you think it
might work.

Cheer,

tedd

--
-------
http://sperling.com http://ancientstones.com http://earthstones.com

Jochem Maas wrote:
> Prasad Chand schreef:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am fairly new to PHP. I would like to serve a page to a user based
>> on his input. Say, I have a page 1 where user has 3 options(drop down
>> menu). Based on his selection I would like a php script to direct him
>> to another page (to pages 2,3,4 based on what he selected). I am
>> unable to figure how to do this in php. Can you please give me some
>> pointers.
>>
>> Is there any function which takes path and directs the user to that page?
>
> millions of them, but not in php itself this is the kind of thing
> you have to write yourself.
>
> you don't really want to redirect the user at all (because it's a
> completely
> unecessary round-trip that will cause your server to have to handle another
> request when you already have the required info needed to display the
> relevant content),
> what you want to do is parse the input from the form and then run the
> relevant
> code to generate the relevant content. e.g.
>
> if (isset($_POST['selected_page'])) {
> switch ($_POST['selected_page']) {
> case 'page1':
> include 'myfirstpage.php';
> exit;
> case 'page2':
> include 'mysecondpage.php';
> exit;
> case 'page3':
> include 'mythirdpage.php';
> exit;
> default:
> die('go away smelly hacker!');
> }
> } else {
> // output your page selection form here or something.
> }
>
> that's just one lame example, there are as many ways to skin this
> cat as there are cats. might I suggest you go and read a few basic
> tutorials because what your asking is as basic as it gets ... namely
> take some user input and use it to determine what to output ...
>
>

Thanks for your reply Jochem. I will keep your advice in mind. This is
off-topic, but the reason I was touchy about includes was because it
could create seo problems.

http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=31519

Thanks again,
Prasad
>
>
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Prasad
>>
>