How to Set Custom HTTP Response Codes in PHP?

How to Send an HTTP Response Code in PHP

Sending HTTP response codes from a PHP script is essential for providing proper communication with the client. This article covers three methods for sending custom response codes.

PHP 4.0 : Manual Response Code Assembly

The header() function allows you to define a custom HTTP response line, including the HTTP response code. However, for CGI PHP, you'll need to use the Status HTTP header.

// Assembly manually
header("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");

// For CGI PHP
if (substr(php_sapi_name(), 0, 3) == 'cgi')
    header("Status: 404 Not Found");
else
    header("HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found");

PHP 4.3 : Header Function's Third Argument

To avoid parsing issues with the manual approach, you can use the third argument of the header() function, which allows you to specify the response code.

// Set the non-empty first argument to anything
header(':', true, 404);

// Use a custom header field name
header('X-PHP-Response-Code: 404', true, 404);

PHP 5.4 : http_response_code() Function

PHP 5.4 introduced the dedicated http_response_code() function, which simplifies the task of setting response codes.

http_response_code(404);

Compatibility Function for PHP 4.3

For PHP versions below 5.4, a compatibility function can be used to provide the http_response_code() functionality.

function http_response_code($newcode = NULL)
{
    static $code = 200;
    if($newcode !== NULL)
    {
        header('X-PHP-Response-Code: '.$newcode, true, $newcode);
        if(!headers_sent())
            $code = $newcode;
    }       
    return $code;
}

The above is the detailed content of How to Set Custom HTTP Response Codes in PHP?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!