$_GET and retrieveing info passed from html

phpaddik

i have a flash banner on a page that when clicked sends the browser to another page. This banner is linked to a php file that counts the amount of clicks on the banner. In the html page for the flash banner I have:

 <embed src="swfs/banner1.swf?clicktag=forms/tracking/bannertrace.php&clickheader=http://www.somewebsite.com" width="570" height="80" align="middle">

in my php file I have:

<?php
$traceFile = "banner/clicktrace.txt";
$clickURL = $_GET(clickheader);
$fh = fopen($traceFile, 'r');
$theData = fread($fh, filesize($traceFile));
fclose($fh);
$fw = fopen($traceFile, 'w');
$theData = $theData+1;
fwrite($fw, $theData);
fclose($fw);

header('Location:$clickURL');
?>

I might be way off here but the clicktag variable works when clicking n the flash banner and redirects the browser to the php page, loads the variable, adds to it and writes the new variable. However the clickheader variable that contains the URL does not get passed to the php file... What am I missing?

Thanks for any help.

condoug

Should it not be:

$clickURL = $_GET['clickheader'];

phpaddik

that doesn't seem to work either. 😕

mikell

I'd be willing to bet clickheader does get passed to your script...add this and see:
$clickURL = $_GET(clickheader);
die("clickurl:".$clickURL);

If that prints out the correct value, then you know its getting set. You should get in the habit of making absolutely sure something isn't being set by printing out the value instead of making assumptions...will save lots of time. If you've tried this already, then what I just said makes me sound like a condescending ass, so please forget that you just read it and try the next suggestion.

change header('Location:$clickURL'); to header('Location:'.$clickURL);

Weedpacket

First off, condoug is right about the syntax.

Secondly, a bit of clarification is needed. Are you wanting to put "forms/tracking/bannertrace.php" into clicktag and "http://www.somewebsite.com" into clickheader and passing both to banner1.swf (which is what you are doing right now)
or
"forms/tracking/bannertrace.php?clickheader=http://www.somewebsite.com" into clicktag (noting that I changed '&' into '?' there to make it a valid query string)?

If it's the second one you want then "forms/tracking/bannertrace.php?clickheader=http://www.somewebsite.com" will need to be urlencoded - otherwise how is banner1.swf supposed to realise that it is supposed to treat it all as text and not as containing a second querystring argument?

If it's the first one, then whatever is going wrong would appear to be something inside the shockwave file's code.

phpaddik

I was wanting to click on the banner1.swf, which is redirected to the clicktag variable in the embed tag, then the clickheader variable would get passed to the php file where it would tell the php file to redirect the browser to http://www.somewebsite.com. in my swf file I have:

on (release) {
getURL(clicktag,"_blank);
}

this uses the clicktag variable in the html embed tag (which seems to work, b/c when I change the Location: in the php to a http:// address & not a variable, it all works fine). I have tried in the embed tag to pass the variable using

<embed src="swfs/banner1.swf?clicktag=forms/tracking/bannertrace.php&clickheader=http://www.somewebsite.com">

<embed src="swfs/banner1.swf?clicktag=forms/tracking/bannertrace.php?clickheader=http://www.somewebsite.com">

but the clicktag variable works but the php file never recieves the clickheader variable. I have tried to echo the variable and all of the above suggestions but the php variable $clickURL just stays blank. Is it not possible to place two variables in an embed tag as above, or is that not the problem?

thanks for all your help

mikell

Inside your flash movie, clicktag is equal to "forms/tracking/bannertrace.php"
and clickheader is equal to "http://www.somewebsite.com". With your call to getURL, you are opening "forms/tracking/bannertrace.php" but not passing the clickheader variable to it.