How to determine the "calling" page.

Stinger51

I know there's a way for a page to determine which page called it, I think via the HTTP_VARS array. But I don't see it.

IOW, how can I determine (within my own web app) which page called my, e.g. Help_Page.php? I want to be able to build a link that takes the user back to his previous page. But I gotta know where to take them back "to."

Note: the Back Button isn't very useful here, as it refreshes the page and usually destroyes any data that was on that page.

Thanks in advance.

travelbuff

I think you want:
$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']
http://us4.php.net/reserved.variables
http://us2.php.net/http

However, that isn't always reliable. You might want to consider sending the referring link to the help page via POST or setting a cookie to track them.

Stinger51

Thanks, should have thought of that sooner. 🙂

One follow up question. Is there any environment variable that holds the value of the current page's URL? If so, I could really automate this process by passing that value along to the Help page, rather than hard code things.

travelbuff

$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']