hiding the query string in url

Anon

pl inform in any other option other than frame for this

[deleted]

There is no other way that I am aware of.
In fact, the whole point of the "location" bar is to show you where you are... :-)

Anon

It's tough, but if you want you can create a page that will read posted variables and then include the final page that you are calling, and make all of the links in your site buttons inside individual forms that hold hidden fields with all of the variables you need to select the pages for display. And have each of these forms call the same base page.

This is a very tough way to do it since you need to control each and every link on your page, and to make it look good all of those links should be graphics. If you have the GD library installed you could possibably create images with the text of the link so that they all look like standard text links, but this would be time consuming to program not to mention processor intensive to do on a dynamic basis.

badchenn

I'm guessing that you are passing data from one page to another and when you do you can see the results in the address bar. If that is true then read on.

There are two ways of passing data from one page to another.

GET: This is a bit simpler. It takes the address of the next page and tacks on some variables so you get::

http://www.hmmm.com?page=1&person=chuck

::this is a pretty easy way to do it but shows the results of your form/query.

POST: This is what you'll want. This method takes your form/query and adds it to the actual page so that as it gets sent back to the server and returns, it is hidden from users. You'll get::

http://www.hmmm.com

::but yet the page you see will know about data sent from the previous page.

This choice will be made when you add your <FORM> tag. You will want to add <FORM ACTION="whatever.htm" METHOD="POST" NAME="somename"> I belive you have ...METHOD="GET"... now.

Have fun!!

ab5602

Use the function passthru() which will pass information to the browser from a non-shared area of your server's filesystem.

$fn=fopen("/opt/download/$filename" , "r");
header("Content-Type: application/octet-stream\n");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=\"" . $filename . "\"");
fpassthru($fn);

This code example passes a binary file, just change the header to something like text/html instead of application/octet-stream for a .html file.

-Rob

[deleted]

And how does this help to hide the location?
All it does show the location in a different shape. All the query data will still be visible.

Anon

If Muktha is trying to hide a URL so that the user cannot link to it unless a certain condition is met (ie. username, password etc.._), the passthru() works perfectly.

If he is merely trying to hide form information, badchenn has the correct answer (post vs. get).

-Rob

edwardsbc

If you absolutely must pass your variables with a GET, you could always encrypt them with encrypt() first, and then use decrypt() on the receiving page. Not very neat, but certainly workable. If you are passing many variables, you might try to find a way to encrypt them in bulk and then just pass one encrypted variable.

[deleted]

Hello! what are we talking about here?

It started out as a way of cleaning up the Location bar, now we are talking about encrypting data?

Let's get back to the question:

Answer: No there is no easy alternative to using a hidden frame.

Anon

"Answer: No there is no easy alternative to using a hidden frame. "

The operative word in that statement is EASY there are many ways to do it as has been pointed out above, it's just a matter of exactly the result wanted and the effort one wants to put into it.

Anon

why not encrypt the query string if you don't want people to understand it?

or how about generating random numbers for specific queries and only accept those which have been generated (write them in a file and delete them when used/not used). This won't actually hide the query string from the user, but it will make it impossible for users to revisit pages based upon saved queries in their cache, history, or links.

But it all depends on what you need to do. Putting a form on every page would also work, but then you wouldn't be using queries. More details about your application would be helpful.

badchenn

...I hate to stir up the pot but, what about an array?

[deleted]

What about it?