HTTPS Security

[NightShade003]

I'm trying to determine the best way to provide HTTPS access to a web application that I'm building.  I know that you can use the following code to redirect anyone manually accessing the http version of an https page:

 

if($_SERVER["HTTPS"] != "on") {
   header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
   header("Location: "https://" . $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] . $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
   exit();
}

 

I have also heard that you could use mod_rewrite in Apache to achieve similar results.  The entire web application should use https so I just want to make sure that I'm setting this up correctly. 

 

Feedback on the best approach or other suggestions would be very helpful.  Thanks in advance.