Question

I wanted to handle 403 error without using server side error redirection methods(i.e. without using .htaccess file). Sometimes server returns a 403 error message (forbidden access). So is it possible to have PHP script which handles this 403 error message?

For example, Before showing error page, I would like to obtain server status when it my specific php page runs, and without making a redirection, I would just like to display custom message in the that page.

Answer 1

Some solutions for you.

1. Check for URL errors and make sure the actual web page is specified. Its common reason for a web site to return the 403 Forbidden error, when the URL is pointing to a directory instead of a web page. Which can be done using HttpRequest Class in PHP. You can use http_get to perform GET request. You can also Test URL here.

    <?php
    $response = http_get("URL", array("timeout"=>1), $info);
    print_r($info);
    ?>
   

Output:

    array (
       'effective_url' => 'URL',
       'response_code' => 403,
       .
       and so on
       )

What is important for you is response_code with which you can play further.

2. Use of curl.

    function http_response($url)
    { 
        $ch = curl_init(); 
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url); 
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, TRUE); 
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, TRUE); 
        curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, TRUE); 
        $head = curl_exec($ch); 
        $httpCode = curl_getinfo($ch, CURLINFO_HTTP_CODE); 
        curl_close($ch); 
   
        if(!$head) 
        {  
         return FALSE; 
        } 
   
        return $httpCode;
    }
   
    $errorcode = http_response("URL");    //if success 200 otherwise different