header redirect and server logs

gypmaster

Hi,

I can't find an answer to this anywhere ... simple question really:

Traffic comes from site a: www.incoming.com

a script on www.mysite.com uses php header to redirect to destination site: www.destination.com

question is, how can I make the server logs etc. on www.destination.com show that the traffic came from www.mysite.com and NOT www.incoming.com ?

is there a php way to do that?

TIA

bradgrafelman

What do you mean "came from" ? Do you mean using the HTTP_REFERER header to determine what the last page viewed was?

If so, there's nothing you can do to change this as that header is (optionally) sent by the client's browser.

gypmaster

What I mean is ... the server log for www.destination.com will show that the visitor got there from www.incoming.com ... it seems as though the redirect at www.mysite.com 'never happened' in terms of tracking the traffic to www.destination.com

I want to know if there's a way that I can make www.mysite.com show up in the server log for www.destination.com as where the traffic came from.

Cheers..

bradgrafelman

My guess is that content redirects don't count as an actual page view (since you haven't actually seen the "page" yet), so the redirect is simply forwarding them on without ever actually "visiting" www.mysite.com .

Perhaps using a Refresh HTTP header (with a timeout of 0 - instant) to "redirect" them would make www.mysite.com be considered a page view (thereby passing its address as the referrer instead).

rowanparker

But some people disable meta refreshes so be warned.

gypmaster

Thanks for the suggestion ... I tried it but it doesn't work, that is, the logs are showing www.incoming.com as the referral page rather than www.mysite.com

any other ideas??

NogDog

I believe the location header() is sent back to the client, which then does the actual redirect to the new location. For the new location to know where it came from, you'd probably have to add some query string data, and the new location would need to know to look for it if it wants to track "referrals" from your site.

header("Location: http://www.destination.com/page.html?referer=mysite.com");

gypmaster

It looks as though I won't be able to do what I wanted then ...

... thanks for your help though!