header () call not going where defined

Question

I have an icon which is surrounded by anchor tags in an echo statement:

<a href='/inc/favourite_post.php?id=$thought_id'>
    <span class='glyphicon glyphicon-heart-empty' aria-hidden='true' style='padding-right: 5px;'></span> 
</a>

When this icon is clicked, I need it to perform a PHP query which is found in favourite_post.php.

Here is favourite_post.php :

$getid = $_GET['id'];
$favourited_by = $username;
/***********************/
//query to get user id
$get_uid = mysqli_query ($connect, "SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username'");
while($query = mysqli_fetch_array($get_uid)){
    $uid = $query['id'];
}
/***********************/
// get details of the post id and username
$get_id = mysqli_query ($connect, "SELECT * FROM user_thoughts WHERE added_by ='$user'");
$row_query = mysqli_fetch_array($get_id);
$fav_by = $row_query['favourited_by'];
$fav_status = $row_query['fav_status'];

$fav_query = mysqli_query ($connect, "INSERT INTO post_favourites (user_id, thought_id) VALUES ('$uid', '$getid')");

header ("Location: ../profile_page/$added_by");

Problem walk through:

Assume I am logged in as Alice and I am on andersons profile_page. The URL at this point will read http://localhost/profile_page/anderson.
I like a post from Anderson and click the icon, which performs this query to favourite their post.
When a user favourites someone's post, I need the page's location to be on the same address, i.e. stay on http://localhost/profile_page/anderson. So in the header() call, I have specified it's location to be ../profile_page/$added_by. $added_by is the username of the user and should take the user back to http://localhost/profile_page/anderson, but it doesn't.
When the icon is clicked, the address bar reads http://localhost/profile_page/ .. meaning the $added_by variable is not being passed through.

Edit:

Here is where I have defined $added_by:

$get_id = mysqli_query ($connect, "SELECT * FROM user_thoughts WHERE added_by ='$user'");
    $row_query = mysqli_fetch_array($get_id);
        $added_by = $row_query['added_by'];
        $fav_by = $row_query['favourited_by'];
        $fav_status = $row_query['fav_status'];

I have previously used header ("Location: profile_page/$user") on other pages. $user is the var which holds the data after ?u= in the URL. $added_by obtains the same data from the data. $user and $added_by are both usernames for users, which is why I am stumped.

check if you're not outputting before header. either way, that header is failing for a reason or two, maybe even the variable failed. http://php.net/manual/en/function.error-reporting.php — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 21:56
possible duplicate of [PHP: Notice: Undefined variable and Notice: Undefined index](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4261133/php-notice-undefined-variable-and-notice-undefined-index) — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 22:02
curious how this is used `` is that inside PHP tags at all? I almost posted an answer, but afraid it would have backfired on me. — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 22:18
@Fred-ii- Yes, sorry, should have specified, the above is in an echo statement. — Freddy, Mar 07 '16 at 22:28
oh there you are. well I submitted an answer which I may as well delete now. Edit: answer deleted — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 22:28
@AbraCadaver - Don't know how I missed that! Nevertheless, I have defined it now, but still have the same issue. — Freddy, Mar 07 '16 at 22:29
Are there any "Headers already sent" warnings in the PHP log? — Barmar, Mar 07 '16 at 22:30
@Fred-ii- My apologies, I should have been more clear in my question. — Freddy, Mar 07 '16 at 22:33
Can you update the question to show how you're setting `$added_by`? — Barmar, Mar 07 '16 at 22:35
*"stores the `$username` variable which is the session"* - as in `$_SESSION`? if so, did you start the session and inside all pages using them? — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 22:41
@Fred -ii- Yes,for the pages involved, the `$_SESSION` is found on both `profile_page.php` and on `favourite_post.php` and session_start() has been used on both. — Freddy, Mar 07 '16 at 22:44
what I don't get is where `$favourited_by` is defined and the same for `$user` and `$thought_id` something doesn't add up here. Are you 100% sure you're using error reporting? You're also not checking for errors for your queries. There isn't anything else I can think of here other than adding `exit;` to header if there's any more code below that. Use `var_dump();` to see what's going through or not and scattered echo'd variables. — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 23:01
*"which holds the data after `?u=` in the URL"* - and you're using `?id=$thought_id` what am I not getting here too. `?u` and `?id`. That doesn't add up here. — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 23:10
ping me if I got anything right. I have to leave the question now, I did my best to help out. Good luck — Funk Forty Niner, Mar 07 '16 at 23:15

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Mar 07 '16 at 23:14

0

I think you actually meant to use the $favourited_by variable in your header() call:

header( "Location: ../profile_page/$favourited_by" );

edited Mar 07 '16 at 23:14

Funk Forty Niner

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answered Mar 07 '16 at 22:00

BenM

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First of all, thank you for your answer. The `$favourited_by` variable stores the `$username` variable which is the session created for the logged in user. With that header() call, I will always be redirected to the logged in users `profile_page`. – Freddy Mar 07 '16 at 22:31

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 08 '16 at 02:02

0

This line of code is invalid: <a href='/inc/favourite_post.php?id=$thought_id'>. It should be like this: <a href='/inc/favourite_post.php?id=<?php echo $thought_id;?>'>. Of course, I assumed '$thought_id' is a php variable.

answered Mar 08 '16 at 02:02

CharlesEF

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header () call not going where defined

2 Answers2