Question

What options are available to send an error message back to the form page?

I have a form on login.php it submits to process.php. process.php handles the db connection, validation etc. If there is an error, I want to pass that back to index.php.

ie:

    } else {
    session_destroy();
    header("Location: /login");
    $error = "Sorry, that user name or password is incorrect. Please try again.";
}

Since these are two different files, what are the best options available to set and retrieve the errors? $_POST, $_GET, $_SESSION?

Answer 1

For your specific case, and with the code given, $_SESSION is your best bet. I.e:

$_SESSION['login_error_msg'] = "Sorry, that user name or password is incorrect. Please try again.";

Then back in index.php you’d have to check that session variable somehow, e.g:

if( ! empty($_SESSION['login_error_msg']))
{
    //display the message however you want
    unset($_SESSION['login_error_msg'];
}