How to send a status code in PHP, without maintaining an array of status names?

Question

All I want to do, is send a 404 status code from PHP - but in a generic fashion. Both Router::statusCode(404) and Router::statusCode(403) should work, as well as any other valid HTTP status code.

I do know, that you can specify a status code as third parameter to header. Sadly this only works if you specify a string. Thus calling header('', false, 404) does not work.

Furthermore I know, that one can send a status code via a header call with a status line: header('HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found')

But to do this I have to maintain an array of reason phrases (Not Found) for all status codes (404). I don't like the idea of this, as it somehow is a duplication of what PHP already does itself (for the third header parameter).

So, my question is: Is there any simple and clean way to send a status code in PHP?

Microdot

The simple and clean way is to send the proper header. Any other way (including using the 3rd parameter to header() IMHO) is dirty. There are not that many status codes, and they are well documented. What's not clean about doing a simple map? – Plasticine

Answer 1

There is a new function for this in PHP >= 5.4.0 http_response_code

Simply do http_response_code(404).

If you have a lower PHP version try header(' ', true, 404); (note the whitespace in the string).

If you want to set the reason phrase as well try:

header('HTTP/ 433 Reason Phrase As You Wish');

Disinclined

+1 for the whitespace at the beginning. The second parameter can be either true or false according to my experience. – Nevadanevai

@hectorct, why do we need true as the second parameter? – Novella

It doesn't matter. The result is the same if the second parameter is set to true or false. In fact, it can be marginally faster with it set to false because php doesn't try to replace previous headers. – Disinclined

Answer 2

The actual text of the code is irrelevant. You could do

header('The goggles, they do nawtink!', true, 404);

and it'd still be seen as a 404 by the browser - it's the code that matters.

Kaylenekayley

Are you really suggesting this as a valid and clean way of setting a status code? – Plasticine

No, just a goofy way to show that the text of the header is irrelevant, as long as the status code is there. – Kaylenekayley

+1 because it's true, and because a comment like that is certainly going to make that apparent to any future developers :) @Plasticine - hey, it's php! – Hargreaves

While this is certainly true, the message is provided for the user to read, and some user-agents (usually, not browsers but multimedia players for example) will display them. – Segal

Sure, not saying to put something totally different, like "Access denied" for a 404, but "Not found" is just a simple suggested default. You could put a 500 page poem that boils down to the same thing if you so chose. – Kaylenekayley

Uhm, I'm not sure I understand this. Will PHP send a The goggles, they do nawtink! header (which obviously is not existent) or does it ignore it as an invalid header or what does it do? – Microdot

@nikic: PHP will pass it on, it's up to the webserver (Apache, etc) to throw it away or not... – Plasticine

@ircmaxell: Thanks. I will use this variant then, assuming that any reasonable server will throw this header away. – Microdot

This suggestion provokes a "HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error" per status-line and Apache offers a response body in HTML that is according to the status code (integer 404 in the answer). Even though PHP was sending a response body (Apache 2.2.22/mod_fcgid/2.3.6). – Nevadanevai

No, As stated by @Nevadanevai this gives me a server error which redirects to my 500 error page with the header "HTTP/1.1 500 Internal Server Error". The correct answer is there are two choices. 1) http_response_code(404); or for older PHP versions 2) header(' ', true, 404); with whitespace in the quotes. – Almanac

Answer 3

Zend Framework has a packaged solution in Zend_Http_Response

Zend_Http_Response::$messages contains:

/**
 * List of all known HTTP response codes - used by responseCodeAsText() to
 * translate numeric codes to messages.
 *
 * @var array
 */
protected static $messages = array(
    // Informational 1xx
    100 => 'Continue',
    101 => 'Switching Protocols',

    // Success 2xx
    200 => 'OK',
    201 => 'Created',
    202 => 'Accepted',
    203 => 'Non-Authoritative Information',
    204 => 'No Content',
    205 => 'Reset Content',
    206 => 'Partial Content',

    // Redirection 3xx
    300 => 'Multiple Choices',
    301 => 'Moved Permanently',
    302 => 'Found',  // 1.1
    303 => 'See Other',
    304 => 'Not Modified',
    305 => 'Use Proxy',
    // 306 is deprecated but reserved
    307 => 'Temporary Redirect',

    // Client Error 4xx
    400 => 'Bad Request',
    401 => 'Unauthorized',
    402 => 'Payment Required',
    403 => 'Forbidden',
    404 => 'Not Found',
    405 => 'Method Not Allowed',
    406 => 'Not Acceptable',
    407 => 'Proxy Authentication Required',
    408 => 'Request Timeout',
    409 => 'Conflict',
    410 => 'Gone',
    411 => 'Length Required',
    412 => 'Precondition Failed',
    413 => 'Request Entity Too Large',
    414 => 'Request-URI Too Long',
    415 => 'Unsupported Media Type',
    416 => 'Requested Range Not Satisfiable',
    417 => 'Expectation Failed',

    // Server Error 5xx
    500 => 'Internal Server Error',
    501 => 'Not Implemented',
    502 => 'Bad Gateway',
    503 => 'Service Unavailable',
    504 => 'Gateway Timeout',
    505 => 'HTTP Version Not Supported',
    509 => 'Bandwidth Limit Exceeded'
);

Even if you're not using zend-framework you might be able to break this out for personal use.

Worl

Isn't this exactly what the question specified that they didn't want? – Plasticine

@ircmaxwell, As you said, there is no maintaining this list as it's already developed to spec.. and the spec isn't changing. – Worl

I love that the Mike and Mark B brothers decided to help us all out here. Also, @eyelidlessness, thanks for making an awkward situation at my office. Uncontrollable laughter is a curse. – Microcline

@MikeB Untrue; RFC 6585, for example, added more status codes. – Batholith

Answer 4

Yeah, just do this...

header('x', true, 404);

The first string parameter can be anything that doesn't contain a :. PHP will then replace and go with the standard phrase. The second parameter specifies "always replace", and the 3rd is the status code you want.

References:

• http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php
• http://gif.phpnet.org/frederic/programs/http_status_codes/

Segal

Can't this have any implications? Can one do this, because X denotes custom headers? Is this considered bad style? – Microdot

@nikic, I don't believe so, because you aren't specifying the full header. See my latest edit. – Segal

Answer 5

Your server's responses should reflect the context of the response to a client's request. Additionally you shouldn't bother with the excess text, simply return the HTTP status number.

header('HTTP/2.0 200');//Ok / successful response.
header('HTTP/2.0 301');//Permanent redirect
header('HTTP/2.0 400');//Client request error: Bad request (e.g. missing $_POST, $_GET).
header('HTTP/2.0 401');//Client request error: Not authenticated
header('HTTP/2.0 403');//Client request error: Authenticated, still lacking permission.
header('HTTP/2.0 404');//Client request error: File Not Found
header('HTTP/2.0 500');//Server error, general.

Chavarria