Question

In a PHP file when I need to redirect a user and headers are already sent so I can not use php’s header function, in this case which is the best method to redirect a user?

Fastest and most reliable method regardless of the users browser brand?

echo '<script type="text/javascript">window.top.location="http://localhost/";</script>';

// OR

echo '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;url=' .$location. '">';

UPDATE

Here is my end result code I am using now, if headers are already sent where I cannot redirect to the homepage, I just bring the homepage to me, so instead of including the body page, it will include my homepage and footer

function validlogin($url) {
    if (!isset($_SESSION['auto_id']) || ($_SESSION['auto_id']=='')) {
        $_SESSION['sess_login_msg'] = 'Please login';
        $_SESSION['backurl'] = $url;
        $temp = '';
        if (headers_sent() === false){
            header("Location: /");
            exit();
        }else{
            //header is already sent so we will just bring the homepage to us instead of going to it!!!
            include 'mainbody.inc.php';
            include 'footer.inc.php';
            exit();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

function Redirect($url, $permanent = false)
{
    if (headers_sent() === false)
    {
        header('Location: ' . $url, true, ($permanent === true) ? 301 : 302);
    }

    exit();
}

Redirect('http://www.google.com/', false);

Again, use ob_start();