getenv(&quot;HTTP_REFERER&quot;) ??

getenv("HTTP_REFERER") ??

Anon

I'm trying to log all the referers to a website but I encountered this problem:

This is the test scenario I've created:

1a. goto.html

... contains the <a href=target.php>target</a> link.

1b. goto.php

... contains "<?php header("Location=target.php"); ?>

target.php
-------------
... contains:

$ref = getenv("HTTP_REFERER");
echo "$ref";

Problem:

If I click the href link in goto.html, then target.php will show the "$ref" value as "goto.html".

However, if I click on the goto.php (which has a header() cmd, then target.php won't show anything - $ref="". How to solve this ?
How can I get the referering page if someone uses the 'header()' cmd ?

Appreciate any tips you might have.

Thanks !

Adrian

Anon

I got around it using HTML Meta tags in goto.php:

I suggest the Following code(which I robbed from a friend of mine)🙂

</body>

Since this doesn't require php you can call it .html or .php, although your server admin might prefer you calling it .html

Anon

May be you can solve that issue but
don't forget that feeding the Referer
HTTP field is not compulsory.

For instance when you type directly
"www.yahoo.com" in the address field
of your browser there's no Referer field
on the other side to check.

So your program have to deal with empty
Referer.

Anon

Hi Rory and Herve,

Thanks for the reply ... Rory, I tried your method - but it didn't work either, no HTTP_REFERER 🙁

I'm trying to code a logging script - you know, the ones that can track who referred the user to your website ... basically, is there anyway (besides HTTP_REFERER) to track where the referring url/host the user came from ?

Appreciate any reply you may have.

Thanks !

Adrian

robro

I'm afraid you are out of luck there. I done a redirect to a phpinfo() file which AFAIK gives all the Serverside variables. And I didn't find any.

I also tried passing through the name of the page using the (Location: target.php?lastpage=$PHP_SELF) but aparently all it passes on are the filenames.

What I think you do is using javascript detect the last page and maybe do something with that, but I don't know javascript so I'm not sure. I do however believe that you could put an atribute in to body of the form <body onLoad="javascript:window.something("target.php?refer=<?=$PHP_SELF ?>")" >

I do not however see the point in this. When most people come to your page from another they will do so by means of a hyperlink which does pass on the HTTP_REFERER thing.

I think that the number of people who come by means of Location header will be minimal if existant.