URL Redirection

nimb0z

My java application is more or less a search engine and I need a php redirect page that would redirect outgoing links through this php redirect page on my website.

That way I can keep track of what links people use from my site, and I can also leave a trace of my referral into the reciever's stats.

Original:
http://www.somedomain.com/whatever/blah.php

Redirected:
http://www.mydomain.com/redr.php?http://www.somedomain.com/whatever/blah.php

Any help greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

devinemke

[man]header[/man]

nimb0z

I'm just a noob, can you point what on that page is useful to me?

Thanks.

devinemke

nimb0z wrote:
can you point what on that page is useful to me?

...the part about redirection...there is even an example there.

nimb0z

There're several examples mentioned, can you please point me the correct one?

Many thanks.

laserlight

The one with:

header("Location: http://www.example.com");

nimb0z

ah! That's a simple redirection for a specific url, right?

But my application displays many unkown urls, just like a search engine. I want those links to go through a page on my website to leave a trail of my referral into the target website's statistics.

laserlight

But my application displays many unkown urls, just like a search engine. I want those links to go through a page on my website to leave a trail of my referral into the target website's statistics.

So you create a page specially to do that redirection. That script would use header() with the URL passed to it.

nimb0z

Right, I need to create a page on my website that would redirect all outgoing links to their target website.

I can use header("Location: http://www.example.com"); but I'd have to put a particular known url in place of example.com, right? whereas, I'm talking about redirecting all unknown urls through this redirector script.

Get me?

laserlight

but I'd have to put a particular known url in place of example.com, right? whereas, I'm talking about redirecting all unknown urls through this redirector script.

Well, let's rewrite my example:

$url = "http://www.example.com";
header("Location: $url");

nimb0z

thats it? 😐 (amazing!)

and do I need to add any additional parameter to those outgoing links?

I mean, if the redirector page (witih the above code) is located at http://mydomain.com/url.php, all outgoing links should be in this format:

http://mydomain.com/url.php?http://outgoingdomain.com

right?

laserlight

and do I need to add any additional parameter to those outgoing links?

Not that I know of.

I mean, if the redirector page (witih the above code) is located at http://mydomain.com/url.php, all outgoing links should be in this format:

http://mydomain.com/url.php?http://outgoingdomain.com

right?

Yes, though you may wish to use [man]urlencode/man or [man]rawurlencode/url where appropriate.

nimb0z

I'm clueless. I'd be greateful if you can create an example for it, possible?

Many thanks

nimb0z

I created redr.php at http://www.mydomain.com/redr.php, with the following code:

<?php

$url = "http://www.mydomain.com";
header("Location: $url"); 

?>

..but trying http://www.mydomain.com/redr.php?http://www.outgoinglink.com, send me back to www.mydomain.com, as I've set mydomain.com as $url.

Did I miss something?

laserlight

errr... dont you need to use $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] instead of $url?

nimb0z

(forgive my technical virginity) Like this?:

<?php

$url = "http://www.mydomain.com";
header("Location: $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']"); 

?>

laserlight

You'll get a parse error that way.

<?php
if (!empty($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'])) {
	header("Location: {$_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']}"); 
}
?>

nimb0z

It worked! Excellent.

However, I tried redirecting (mydomain.com/redr.php?domain2.com) to one of my other domain (eg domain2.com) and checked the 'Latest Visitors' through my cPanel, but there's no referral from the source domain (mydomain.com).

Should'nt the referral from mydomain.com show in the stats of domain2.com according to this redirector?

Thanks heaps!

laserlight

Should'nt the referral from mydomain.com show in the stats of domain2.com according to this redirector?

hmm... I thought it would. If sending a redirect header with PHP doesnt work for the referral, you could try doing a meta tag redirect, or maybe a javascript redirect and see if it makes a difference.

nimb0z

Ah!

About javascript redirects, I've usually seen/used normal redirection as this:

<html>
<body>
<p align="center">The page you are looking for is not here. Try:</p>
<p align="center">
<a href= "http://www.domain.com/resources/htmljavascript.htm">
www.domain.com/resources/htmljavascript.htm</a></p>
<p align="center">If you are not redirected automatically within a few
 seconds then please click on the link above.</p>
<script language="JavaScript"><!--
setTimeout('Redirect()',4000);
function Redirect()
{
 location.href = '../htmljavascript.htm';
}
// --></script>
</body>
</html>

..but I'm unsure how an unknown url can be automatically redirected through javascript or meta tags.