FrontPage Tips by Ward Cameron Enterprises
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Redirecting Users to New Pages

Occasionally, you'll find that you need to redirect users to a page that they may not have planned. For instance, you may want to have them directed to a page.

This page uses a few advanced techniques discussed in our tutorials called Database Results Basics AND  Passing Parameters

Using a Page Redirect

Websites often have changing content, and pages sometimes are moved. Since the moved pages may have been indexed by search engines, you will be leaving your visitors with the dreaded Page Not Found Error.

As a better option, keep the original link active but put some simple code on the page that will redirect your users to the new page location.

Your redirect code will need to be placed above the first HTML tag in the FrontPage HTML tab. Type the following code:

<%@ language="JScript"> %>
<%
Response.Buffer = true;
Response.Redirect( "http://www.FrontPageMagic.com" );
%>

In this case, the browser would be redirected to FrontPageMagic.com.

Redirecting a Page Using a Parameter

In a database driven site, you may want to present your users with a list of websites in a drop-down list and give them the option to go directly to one of the sites. To do this, you'll need to create two pages, one to display the form, and a second one to receive the link code and redirect to the appropriate page.

In this example, we'll pass the website URL as a parameter. For example, in this case, the URL will be passed at the end of the hyperlink as in the following example:

http://www.FrontPageMagic.com/redirect.asp?Website=http://www.WardCameron.com

First, let's create the redirect page. In order to have the page redirect to a website that is contained within a parameter, you need to alter the code slightly. Like the first example, the code needs to be placed above the first HTML tag on a black web page.

<%@ language="JScript"> %>
<%
Response.Buffer = true;
var Website = Request.QueryString( "Website");
Response.Redirect( Website );
%>

This will instantly redirect the page to the target link that is passed either through a hyperlink OR through a form.

For this example, we've created a simple database table with two fields, Description and Website. The following drop-down box displays the text from the Description field and then submits the Website field to URLRedirectResults.asp.

In this example, I've inserted a simple Database Results Wizard (DRW) which displays the list of site descriptions and websites.

Now, to create a link to the redirect page, I've selected the SiteDescription field and then set the link to send the page to URLRedirectResults.asp. Then, I clicked on the parameters button to add the Website parameter to the link. This will then add the website address to the end of the url.

When the URLRedirectResponse.asp page receives the page it will then send the visitor to the requested page.

You can also use a form to accomplish the same thing. On a blank page, insert a blank form. Inside the form, insert a DRW that displays the SiteDescription, but passes the Website address to the next page. Right click on the form and select properties. Choose Send To Other and then properties. In the Action field type URLRedirectResponse.asp and under Method select Get. This will append the Website parameter to the end of the URL as in the first example.

Why not give it a try here.

All it takes is a little FrontPage Magic.

Super Redirect - Redirect With A Parameter to one of several pages based upon data in several tables

OK, here's the situation. In MountainNature.com, I had three tables, one with data on plants, another on birds and a third on wildlife. I also had three database pages that display data from the tables is part of an online field guide. Since the information you track is different for each, it makes sense to have the data in different tables.

I wanted to offer uses a quick species finder search page. First they would select plants, animals or birds from a drop-down box. If they selected plants, this would open a second drop-down box that would list all of the plants with both common and Latin names sorted in a list. Selecting one of them would open a page that would display the results.

For this to work, I needed to do three things:

1. First, I needed to pass a parameter that would contain the table parameter. Along with this, it would pass the direction of the target page. All that would be missing would be the ID tag for the particular species.
2. When they selected the name on the second drop-down box, it would provide the missing ID tag.
3. Finally, I needed a redirect page that would accept the link address, add the ID tag to the end of the address and then redirect to the correct page for displaying plant data.

Check it out here

This took a great deal of planning to execute. In order to illustrate the technique, we'll do the same thing using the Northwind database. In our case, we'll create the option to select from either customers or suppliers, and then open a page that displays the appropriate results.