Use javascript to redirect to UK or Irish version of the site

Question

I am working on a site where there are UK and Irish sub-folders. Both sites work off the one CMS, inside which there is an Irish section and UK section. I want to store a cookie that contains the version of the site they choose from the drop down

My code so far is Index.html

<form id="region_select" name="region_select" action="/includes/region-val.php" method="post">
        <select id="region-picker" name="region-picker" onchange="this.form.submit();">
            <option>--- Please Select Your Region ---</option>
            <option value="IE" id="IE" name="set_region[IE]">Visit Irish Website</option>
            <option value="UK" id="UK" name="set_region[UK]">Visit UK Website</option>
        </select>
        <input type="submit" name="submit_region" value="Go!"/>
        </form>

My region-val.php code is

 if (isset($_POST["submit_region"])) {
        $region = key($_POST["set_region"]);
        setcookie("region", $region, time() + 24 * 3600);
    }  

    if($_COOKIE["region"] == "UK"){
        header('Location:http://google.com');   
    }
    else{
        header('Location:http://yahoo.com');
    }

So far it only redirects to one version of the site.

Answer 1

I don't see why you are giving names to the <options>s inside your <select>. It's the select's name that is important.

Change the form to this:

<form id="region_select" name="region_select" action="/includes/region-val.php" method="post">
  <select id="region-picker" name="region-picker" onchange="this.form.submit();">
    <option>--- Please Select Your Region ---</option>
    <option value="IE">Visit Irish Website</option>
    <option value="UK">Visit UK Website</option>
  </select>
  <input type="submit" name="submit_region" value="Go!"/>
</form>

The name you gave to the <select> is region-picker - so it's the value of that input you are interested in. The PHP should look like this:

if (isset($_POST["region_picker"])) {
    $region = $_POST["region_picker"]);
    // Maybe you should check here that the user has submitted a valid region
    setcookie("region", $region, time() + 24 * 3600);
}  

if($_COOKIE["region"] == "UK"){
    header('Location:http://google.com');   
}
else{
    header('Location:http://yahoo.com');
}

Answer 2

After set cookie do redirect the page as current request.

 if (isset($_POST["submit_region"])) {
        $region = key($_POST["set_region"]);
        setcookie("region", $region, time() + 24 * 3600);
        // add code for redirect at current page without post vars
    }  

Then the cookie will work.

Note: you can get cookie values after redirection.

Answer 3

A cookie created in PHP (using setcookie()) is not immediately populated into the $_COOKIES array - elements are only added from the request. It may be pssible to add a value at runtime - but I wouldn't rely on this.

Also a HTML select returns a single item, not an array.

A better solution would be:

if (isset($_POST["set_region"])) {
    $region = $_POST["set_region"];
    setcookie("region", $region, time() + 24 * 3600);
}  

if($_COOKIE["region"] == "UK" || $region == "UK"){
    header('Location:http://google.com');   
}
else{
    header('Location:http://yahoo.com');
}

Alternatively set the cookie using javascript (but do bewaer that it will have a path scope defined by the directory of the URL in which the form appears).