How to strip session IDs for GoogleBot?

SulkyGirl

OK, I really have zero idea what I'm doing here, I'm clueless when it comes to PHP, so the more dumbed-down you can make your answer, the happier I'll be. :-)

I'm trying to stop my site from starting a session when Googlebot (or other spiders) enter. Only my index page is listed on the SEs and I'm pretty sure the session ids are to blame. Here's the code I have:

<? 
$searchengines=array("Google", "Googlebot", "Fast", "Slurp", "Ink", "Atomz", "Scooter", "Validator"); 
$is_search_engine=0; 
foreach($searchengines as $key => $val) { 
 if(strstr("$HTTP_USER_AGENT", $val)) { 
 $is_search_engine++; 
 } 
} if($is_search_engine==0) {

 session_start(); 

} else { 


}
include("includes/config.php");
include("includes/hsninclude.php");
if(!isset($_SESSION['menu'])){
  $_SESSION['menu'] = $hsn->getLeftMenu($_SESSION['url']);
  $_SESSION['dropdown'] = $hsn->getCatDropdown($_SESSION['url']);
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>
  <head>
    <title>
      <?=$_GET['prod']?> <?=$_SESSION['st_name']?>

devinemke

$searchengines = array(
	'Google',
	'Googlebot',
	'Fast',
	'Slurp',
	'Ink',
	'Atomz',
	'Scooter',
	'Validator'
);

$is_search_engine = false;

foreach ($searchengines as $value)
{
	if (strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'], $value))
	{
		$is_search_engine = true;
		break;
	}  

}

if (!$is_search_engine)
{
	session_start();	
}

SulkyGirl

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I tried to implement the new code, and clearly I'm doing something wrong because now I get this error message:

"Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING in /home/fzcouub/public_html/index.php on line 2"

Here is what the beginning of the code looks like; not sure where all those underlining things came from. Cut and paste?

<?php $searchengines_=_array( 
____'Google', 
____'Googlebot', 
____'Fast', 
____'Slurp', 
____'Ink', 
____'Atomz', 
____'Scooter', 
____'Validator' 
); 

$is_search_engine_=_false; 

foreach_($searchengines_as_$value) 
{ 
____if_(strstr($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'],_$value)) 
____{ 
________$is_search_engine_=_true; 
________break; 
____}__ 
} 

if_(!$is_search_engine) 
{ 
____session_start();____ 
}
include("includes/config.php");
include("includes/hsninclude.php");
if(!isset($_SESSION['menu'])){
  $_SESSION['menu'] = $hsn->getLeftMenu($_SESSION['url']);
  $_SESSION['dropdown'] = $hsn->getCatDropdown($_SESSION['url']);
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>

rehfeld

yes, those lines must have resulted from cut and pasting it.

what editor are you using/pasting this into? please dont say msword lol

SulkyGirl

Umm...I'm browsing on Safari (I'm a Mac user), using Dreamweaver to edit my pages, and Clipboard to cut and paste. Help!!

devinemke

the point is: if in fact the code you are running contains all those underscores then that is cuasing your parse error, remove them and test again.

SulkyGirl

Nope. The underscores only appear when I paste it into the post here. They aren't in the actual code...

Thanks for your patience! I'm learning all this via trial and error

:rolleyes:

rehfeld

either switch to a different editor, or retype the code

your editor should show these characters to you, but its not for some reason. something is DEFINATELY there if your getting that php error code. BUT, whatever is there is not neccesarily those underscores, this board might just be interpeting them as underscores. still, theres something there that shouldnt be.

im not familiar w/ mac, but try using a very simple text editor, maybe something similar to windows notepad. if thats what clipboard is, then stop using it. get something else.

i would think pasting the code right into dreamweaver should work though. i dont think its a very good php editor, but it should definately show all characters to you.

if all else fails, make a new file, and retype it by hand. it should work then as long as you retype it carefully.

SulkyGirl

Yay! Retyped it and that did it. Thanks so much you guys!!