[RESOLVED] Previous Link Reporter

Aurasia

I'm trying to build an error catching system that people can use to report dead links.

I believe I can redirect/replace the default 404 page with it, but I'll figure that out later. Right now the concept is that when people try to pull a file from the database and the get nothing back, the page will redirect them to an unavailable page where they can optionally fill out a form to report the error.

So while I'm on that 'article' page - how do I get the previous URL from PHP? So I can insert the link as a GET var in the URL and use it in the 'report to webmaster' form.

Thanks in advance.

devinemke

is all of the data that you are providing links for in the database already? your post seems to suggest that. if so then why not just run a query prior to displaying the links that checks to make sure those records are in fact in the database in the first place. perhaps are am not understanding how/where your data is structured.

superwormy

print($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']);

sfullman

devinempke has a good point, however what you're wanting to do has merit in some cases.

Teh "referrer" is not a 100% guaranteed method. 1. some browsers dont' support it and 2. if a user enters a url in the url bar by and vs. following a link there will be no referrer. the variable, if present is $GLOBALS['HTTP_REFERRER'], and you'd just carry that as a hidden field in your form. HTH.

Samuel
(ps not sure whether one R or two in REFERRER :-)

Aurasia

Sorry for not being clear - but there's 2 things going on here and I want to try and fix both of them.

http://www.xxxxxx.com/article.php?id=12345
if that id doesn't pull a page from the database, then I can grab that query ID and sink it into an invisible tag and submit it with the form. So that part's easy.

But the second part of the problem is this: the entire website is migrating from a static site to a new database driven site. So if there are actually dead links embeded in the HTML of the old site (now a part of the database), I want to capture the page that is referring people to pages which are now not existent.

So http://www.xxxxxx.com/myfolder/myfile.htm is no longer a real page. Instead it's become article.php?id=10332848 or something like that. So when people go to the former link, they'll be redirected to a page which by which I want to capture (somehow) the page that sent them to the bad link. I hope that makes sense.

Aurasia

Ok - I've gotten a little further.

 if (isset($_GET['ref'])) {
   echo 'Requested Article ID: '.$_GET['ref']; 
} else { 
   print_r($_SERVER); 
}

This tests to see if the user tried to access an article that didn't exist. It also reports the entire SERVER string if he/she came from a different website.

I've learned that the $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] variable is only set if the user comes from a different website. So how do I get the previous page of the same website that he came from?

Aurasia

Ok, I got it.

I was wrong that the HTTP_REFERER only worked when users come from a different website. It does come from the previous page, so SFULLMan you were right.

I should have everything I need to do what I need to do now, I just need to figure out how to change the 404 Page on my host and I'll be set.

Thanks guys.

vattila

http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/sitemanagement/custom404error.html