Help with URL variable conditional statement

[Spinethetic]

Nature of my goal:
I'am building an affiliate program that pays commissions to affiliates PayPal account.

Problem:
If an affiliate url is like index.php?refer=[e-mail]
and I use PHP code on the "Continue page" on an HTML link -

<a href="offerpage.php<?php $ref = $_GET['refer'];echo "?refer=$ref"; ?>">Continue to offer</a>

This works decent, but what if the URL does not have a "refer" variable?
ie: mysite.com/index.php

How can I set it up so that it checks whether or not a value for "refer" exists, and if not than make the link like so-
mysite.com/offerpage.php?refer=[e-mail]

I hope this is not too confusing :queasy:

Best Regards
~Ross 🙂

[dagon]

if(!empty($_GET['refer'])){
//url with ref
}else{
//url without ref
}

[bradgrafelman]

For a one-liner, you could also do:

<?php echo (!empty($_GET['ref') ? "?refer=$_GET[ref]" : ''); ?>

[Spinethetic]

ok, but how does it retrieve the value of URL variable "refer" and put it into regular PHP variable "ref"?

[bradgrafelman]

It doesn't; nothing in the code/description you showed us above suggested there was any need for a variable called "ref."

[Spinethetic]

OK never mind, I think I have figured out that last part now.

Thank you both for helping me fix this problem.

<?php $ref = $_GET['refer']; if(!empty($_GET['refer'])) { echo "$ref"; } else { echo "[e-mail]"; } ?>

[bradgrafelman]

Can you explain your thinking in that code above? You first assign a value to $ref based on $GET (without first checking it, causing an E_NOTICE error to be issued if it doesn't exist). Then you check if the $GET array index actually exists and, if so, echo the value of $ref.

Is there really any need for the $ref variable at all?

[Spinethetic]

I must apologize for being a newbie, hence my programming logic is probably a bit skewed.

But for whatever reason it seems to be working.

Here is the page I am integrating it into:
http://my3wmarketing.com/twitter/index.php

The PHP is built into an app called "Viral Tweets", which is visable towards the bottom of my page.

Now, the idea I am building is quite a bit more complex that what I have explained so far, the way I am using it actually is a unique Twitter viral marketing program integrated into an affiliate program script called "Rapid Action Profits"

If you click the above link and scroll down, you will see the url "http://bitly.com/twitterforthetweeple" displayed in the TEXTAREA.

However if you click this link:
http://my3wmarketing.com/twitter/index.php?tweeturl=http://google.com
"http://google.com" will be displayed in the TEXTAREA.

[dagon]

Great a new source of spam, i regret offering any assistance.

[Spinethetic]

dagon;10917065 wrote:

Great a new source of spam, i regret offering any assistance.

Actually, on any of my projects I personally follow every clause of the CAN SPAM act
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/canspam.html

The problem oftentimes arises with programs that have an affiliate program built into their product, and then those people are the ones that go out and rent lists from online list brokers and send out their material.

There is a very fine line between ethical marketing and spamming. I make sure that I never cross the line into illegal activities; nor would I even want to, because if I did use spam tools, people would VERY quickly delete everything from my company and ignore everything thereafter just out of spite. Which is not good for business at all. :quiet:

And just for good measure, my autoresponders are ALL double-optin for permission-based email marketing.

[dagon]

Never used twitter, but I'm pretty sure i wouldn't be giving you, or any one, my twitter password (as you request it on the page).

[Spinethetic]

Ah, yes. I know some people will have qualms about that.

"Viral Tweets" is not setup to store usernames and passwords, in fact the PHP for it is all flat-file. Someone with PHP knowledge probably could modify the script so that it does store their passwords and of course telling them otherwise. But obviously after reviewing some of my queries on this forum and several others, I don't think that I have the skillset to do this. 🆒

And the "Viral Tweets" is a registered license script in my name, so if anyone would think that I was storing their information on my website, they could contact the programmers of the script and report me.

I don't think that they could actually file a lawsuit against me, but my name will be blacklisted across the IM community; which is not good for business. :rolleyes:

True IM really is not about making a quick buck. If coordinated intelligently it is a business just like any other, offering services for net profit.

Best Regards
~Ross Vaughn

[dagon]

Spinethetic;10917080 wrote:

True IM really is not about making a quick buck. If coordinated intelligently it is a business just like any other, offering services for net profit.

Here i was thinking it was a communications medium; shows how little I know. There's always some one with an utter disregard for any one else who will try to make money from anything.

[Spinethetic]

lol. I am capitalist, true. But I am not a beurocrat, nor greedy.

If you want a clean car you can wash it yourself in your driveway and not spend a dime (disregarding water and supplies used), or you can take it to a good carwash and have it washed and even detailed for $XX.xx

Why is one free whilst the other is $XX.xx?

Because one is a professional at what they are doing while the other is not. simple enough.

The WSJ charges over a quarter million dollars for a full-page ad.
Why?

Because of the broad audience they have subscribed. Just for the very fact that they have this audience gives them the right to charge this much. Is that a lot of money? At first glance, certainly. Upon realizing that your message/ad will reach over 1 million sunscribers and that over 1/3 of C-Level execs have a subscription ... I do not that that is that bad.

Best Regards
~Ross Vaughn 🙂

[Weedpacket]

However, this isn't the place to argue ideology.

[Spinethetic]

Weedpacket;10917133 wrote:

However, this isn't the place to argue ideology.

I agree, though sometimes I can't help myself but discuss cashflow philosophy.
But I digress,

I get my "ekicks" out of designing css and graphic layouts, I enjoy learning PHP because it is a very flexable programming language and is easy to learn. I personally consider it to have a much easier learning curve than say, Javascript.

My problem is solved with this query. I thank you all for your help. 🆒

Best Regards
~Ross 🙂

[laserlight]

Spinethetic wrote:

I must apologize for being a newbie, hence my programming logic is probably a bit skewed.

But for whatever reason it seems to be working.

The E_NOTICE notice that bradgrafelman was talking about might have been disabled, but it is nonetheless good practice to check that an incoming variable exists before using it.

[Spinethetic]

laserlight;10917141 wrote:

The E_NOTICE notice that bradgrafelman was talking about might have been disabled, but it is nonetheless good practice to check that an incoming variable exists before using it.

Does "E_NOTICE" mean error notice? If so than I'am guessing it is on since I always get error messages when I tweak a script, I usually just keep tweaking and make sure I dident miss a ;, " or } anywhere until the error message goes away and it works as I intended.

I don't know, this line of code looks logical to me

<?php $ref = $_GET['refer']; if(!empty($_GET['refer'])) { echo "$ref"; } else { echo "[e-mail]"; } ?>

Isnt $ref supposed to be a temporary variable holder for the URL variable of "refer" so that it can be passed onto the next page so that "{ echo "$ref"; }" will echo its value? What am I missing?

[laserlight]

Spinethetic wrote:

Does "E_NOTICE" mean error notice? If so than I'am guessing it is on since I always get error messages when I tweak a script, I usually just keep tweaking and make sure I dident miss a ;, " or } anywhere until the error message goes away and it works as I intended.

Yes, it is a kind of error, but one of the least show stopping of them all. Read the PHP manual on error reporting.

Spinethetic wrote:

Isnt $ref supposed to be a temporary variable holder for the URL variable of "refer" so that it can be passed onto the next page so that "{ echo "$ref"; }" will echo its value? What am I missing?

$GET['refer'] is a variable that contains the value of the query string name/value pair with the name of 'refer'. If it exists, the first statement then initialises $ref to be a copy of that variable. If it does not... you would then be trying to initialise $ref using a variable that does not exist. Thus, it would be more correct to write:

<?php
if (!empty($_GET['refer'])) {
    $ref = $_GET['refer'];
    echo "$ref";
} else {
    echo "[e-mail]";
}
?>

or more simply and correctly:

<?php
if (!empty($_GET['refer'])) {
    echo htmlspecialchars($_GET['refer']);
} else {
    echo '[e-mail]';
}
?>

or even:

<?php echo empty($_GET['refer']) ? '[e-mail]' : htmlspecialchars($_GET['refer']); ?>