Help with a Timed Redirect Page please

[Marty1963]

Sorry I'm still very new at this and there is probably an easier way to write this code. I want to have a contest page automatically redirect to another after a certain date. I have the code to turn on and off content after a certain date and I have code for a simple redirect, but I can’t figure out how to combine the two into something that doesn’t look ugly and complex. Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is what I have so far:

<?php $timeoff = '2012-02-10 00:00:00';
$timenow = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
$showtxt = ($timenow >= $timeoff) ? false : true;
if ($timeoff = true);
header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
header( "Status: 301 Moved Permanently" );
header( "Location: http://www.redirectsite.com" );
exit(0); 
} else {
}
?>

[Graphix]

Your code isn't comparing correctly. You want to see whether text needs to be shown using the 'if' condition, but you are comparing a date? You are also using the assign operator '=' instead of the comparing operator '==':

Line 4-10 should be:

if ($showtxt == false) {
...
...
...
...
} else {
  echo "Page content";
}

I'm not sure whether you can compare dates like that, but I guess you can find that out by yourself. You also might consider indenting & commenting your code!

~G

[Marty1963]

Thank you 'Graphix' for your help, however you may have to hold my hand a bit with this as I'm still learning. So with your corrections my code should look like this then?

<?php $timeoff = '2012-02-10 00:00:00';
	$timenow = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
		$showtxt = ($timenow >= $timeoff) ? false : true;
			if ($showtxt == false) {
				header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
				header( "Status: 301 Moved Permanently" );
				header( "Location: http://www.redirectsite.com" );
			exit(0); 
		} else { echo "http://www.contestpage.com"; }
?>

It seems like a simple task, to make a page non-visable after a certain date, do you know if there an easier/cleaner way of doing this?

Thanks again. I really appreciate your help.

~MB

[Zagga]

Hi Marty1963,

I would go with the following code.

<?php
$timeoff = '2012-02-10 00:00:00';
$timenow = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
if ($timenow >= $timeoff) {
	header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
	header( "Status: 301 Moved Permanently" );
	header("Location: http://www.redirectsite.com");
	exit(); 
} else {
	echo "http://www.contestpage.com";
}
?>

The indentation Graphix mentioned is to make your code a bit easier to understand, so you just need to indent 'related' blocks of code.

On a side note, the date function will return the date at the location of your server, not necessarily the location of your users. You may want to bear this in mind.

[Graphix]

When I meant 'indenting & spacing', I meant it a bit differently than you did it (see the code). Also you can't compare dates using the strings, you first need to convert them to UNIX timestamps (see http://php.net/manual/en/function.strtotime.php for more explaination).

<?php 
/* The date limit when the page needs to be redirected: */
$timelimit = '2012-02-10 00:00:00';

/* The current date: */
$timenow = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

/* Comparing the two dates: */
if ( strtotime($timenow) > strtotime($timelimit) ) {

	/* Redirecting user to another page: */
	header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
	header( "Status: 301 Moved Permanently" );
	header( "Location: http://www.redirectsite.com" );
	exit(0); 

} else { 

	/* Showing page content: */
	echo "http://www.contestpage.com"; 
}

?>

As for the redirecting, I think it is either this or a JavaScript redirect (which is client side). Try googling it.

~G

[Marty1963]

Thank you 'Graphix' and 'Zagga' for your help! That's just what I was looking for.
~Cheers!