PHP - loading static class sends headers

Question

I have a simple page in HTML/CSS/PHP that connects to MySQL DB.

"index.php" is loaded and "mainPage::showSectionLogin($_SESSION['login'])" shows logging form

<?php session_start(); ?>
<?php require_once 'clMainPage.php'; ?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<HTML>
  <HEAD>
    <?php mainPage::setSectionHEAD() ?>
    <LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">
  </HEAD>
  <BODY>
    <DIV id="sidebar">
      <?php mainPage::showSectionLogin($_SESSION['login']) ?>
      <?php mainPage::showSidebarMenu($_SESSION['login']) ?>
    </DIV>
    <DIV id="main">
      <?php mainPage::showActualNews(5) ?>
    </DIV>
  </BODY>
</HTML>

"login.php" is executed after the logging form was filled

<?php session_start(); ?> 
<?php require_once 'clMainPage.php'; ?>
<?php
if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {
  $dblink = mainPage::openDBconn();
  $result = mainPage::checkIfUserCanLogIn($dblink, $_POST['inpLogin'], $_POST['inpPassw']);

  if (mysql_num_rows($result) == 1) {
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result);
    mainPage::logUserIn($row['login'], $row['passw']);
  }
  else
  {
    die("error checking user: there is no such user in a database");
  }

  mainPage::closeDBconn($dblink);
  header("refresh:1;url=index.php");
} ?>

I don't inderstand why, during logging in, "header("refresh:1;url=index.php");" (line:18) says that "require_once 'clMainPage.php';" in file "login.php" (line:2) sends headers. How is it possible that "require_once 'clMainPage.php';", that is a class declaratin containing only static functions, actually sends headers?

What's in clMainPage.php? You never know, whitespace or errors can cause headers to be sent... — BoltClock
– BoltClock, Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 9:39
@Shakti Singh, session_start() does send headers, but you are able to do a header redirect after those headers are sent as nothing has been sent to the browser to be rendered. In this example the white space \r\n after the ?> was being sent to the browser. — Alan Whitelaw
– Alan Whitelaw, Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 9:48

Alan Whitelaw · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-18 09:41:03Z

5

There is white space after your closing php tag on line 1, that's what sends the headers

<?php
session_start();
require_once 'clMainPage.php';
if($_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"] == "POST") {

answered Jan 18, 2011 at 9:41

Alan Whitelaw

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3 Comments

Piskvor left the building Over a year ago

Good catch - line breaks are whitespace too.

Alan Whitelaw Over a year ago

No problem @dygi, hard one to spot as there would be nothing to see in the browser either! Feel free to accept my answer. :)

Yasser1984 Over a year ago

Don't use closing tags at the end of php files, that's in Zend's conventions and coding standards document

Matt Lowden · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-18 09:39:42Z

1

Do you have any whitespace / output before / after your < ?php. This is often the cause.

What does 'clMainPage.php' contain?

answered Jan 18, 2011 at 9:39

Matt Lowden

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