Passing a variable from one site to another..

skdzines

Okay, I am trying to setup an affiliate program. On the affilates web site, they will have a link to our website which contains this code in the link:

I am calling redirect.php to redirect them to our index page. This way it eliminates having this is the URL bar:
http://www.whatnott.com?affiliateID=darkarmy.net

Problem is, how do I pass the variable $affiliateID from page to page of the site without losing it? I could make the link go directly to our order form and it will pass fine, but if they got to a couple of other pages on our site and then go back to the order form, $affiliateID is lost. I can get it to display on the page that the link calls first by using <?=$affiliateID?> but how do I pass that along to other pages keeping it hidden?

I tried putting a hidden field like this on every page of our site, but it doesn't seem to be working:
<input type="hidden" name="affiliateID" value="<?=$affiliateID?>">

Or is it possible that it is getting lost in the redirect? This is what I have on the redirect page:

$affilateID = $affiliateID;
header ("Location: http://www.whatnott.com");

Thanks for your help in advance.

LordShryku

I'd suggest setting a session. Couple ways you could do it though
1) set a session
2) hidden input/form
3) database
4) flast file
5) cookie

Someone tell me if I missed one....

skdzines

Okay, I have found that the variable being passed from <a href="http://www.whatnott.com/redirect.php?affiliateID=darkarmy.net"></a> is being lost on the redirect page. This is how I am trying to capture it on the redirect page:

<?
session_start();
$affiliateID=$affiliateID;
header("Location: http://www.whatnott.com");
?>

I am assuming that this is incorrect. Does anyone know how to do it? On the index page that the redirect.php is redirecting to contains the hidden field like this to try to capture the value in $affiliateID:

this hidden field is also on every page of my site incase the user visits multiple pages before going to the order form in order to pass it from page to page.

Any suggestions as to why this isn't working?

By the way LordShryku, I don't really know how to use sessions or some of the other examples you gave in order to make it work.

Thanks

LordShryku

The session variable would be

$_SESSION['affiliateID']=$affiliateID;

Any page you plan to you this on, you would need to cal session_start(), and would reference the variable as $_SESSION['affiliateID']

skdzines

Okay, I can't get it to work. I did what you said (I think) and it doesn't seem to work. I put this on the redirect page:

<? 
session_start(); 
$_SESSION['affiliateID']=$affiliateID; 
header("Location: http://www.whatnott.com"); 
?>

Then on the order page where I really need the affiliateID to be called I put this:

session_start();
$_SESSION['affiliateID'];

To display the ID on the page I put this:
<?=$_SESSION['affiliateID']?>

The ID doesn't show up on the page when I get to that part. The order form is setup as a multipage form all on one page. Do I need to pass a hidden value through each section of the form or not since I have session_start() at the top of the page?

Also, with session_start(); if the user messes something up and has to go back to a previous section of the form, it gives a warning that the page has expired. Why?

Thanks for your help.