Redirection

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Contents

Overview

To redirect users from one page to another, there are a few options, including using Apache directives in .htaccess files.

HTML Method

Key Piece

Place the following in the "<head>" section of the document:

<META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT = "time-in-seconds; URL=new-url">

Replace time-in-seconds with a number and new-url with the new URL.

Example

This HTTP-EQUIV meta tag would like something like this used on a page:

 <html>
 <head>
 <META HTTP-EQUIV="REFRESH" CONTENT = "5; URL=http://www.bulletin.uga.edu">
 <title>
 Courses Website has Moved
 </title>
 </head>
 <body bgcolor="#ffffff">
 The courses website has moved to
 <a href="http://bulletin.uga.edu/">http://bulletin.uga.edu</a>.
 <p>
 If you are not automatically transported to this site in 5 seconds,
 you can select the above URL.
 </p>
 </body>
 </html>

A time of 5 seconds has been chosen. Even though it may be tempting to set the time to 0, it can cause a bit of a problem for users of some browsers (including Netscape). If the "Back" button is pressed, the redirected page is immediately displayed (a "ping-pong" effect).

Applications

A couple good places to use HTML redirects include:

  • in the "index.html" (default) page of an old hosting account (use it to refer folks to your new site)
  • in a confirmation page (notify the user of success/failure and then send them back to the home page after a few seconds)
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