How to get the previous url using PHP

Question

Suppose my site's url is given as hyperlink on some page on the internet; that page could be anything on internet - blog, orkut, yahoo, even stackoverflow etc, and someone clicks on it,and visited my site. So can we know, using php, the previous url from which the visitor came to my page?

Solution 1

Use the $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] header, but bear in mind anybody can spoof it at anytime regardless of whether they clicked on a link.

Solution 2

$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] is the answer

Solution 3

$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] will give you incomplete url.

If you want http://bawse.3owl.com/jayz__magna_carta_holy_grail.php, $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] will give you http://bawse.3owl.com/ only.

Solution 4

I can't add a comment yet, so I wanted to share that HTTP_REFERER is not always sent.

Notice: Undefined index: HTTP_REFERER

Solution 5

But you could make an own link for every from url.

Example: http://example.com?auth=holasite

In this example your site is: example.com

If somebody open that link it's give you the holasite value for the auth variable.

Then just $_GET['auth'] and you have the variable. But you should have a database to store it, and to authorize.

Like: $holasite = http://holasite.com (You could use mysql too..)

And just match it, and you have the url.

This method is a little bit more complicated, but it works. This method is good for a referral system authentication. But where is the site name, you should write an id, and works with that id.

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Comments

[NullPointer]

Is it cross browser solution?

[BoltClock]

@NullPointer: Like I said in my answer, anybody can spoof it, so I guess the answer to your question is no.

[NullPointer]

No. I wanted to ask in different way.

[NullPointer]

I meant it that does it supported by all browsers?

[Syed Mohammad Sannan]

@NullPointer yes it does, it supports all modern browsers.

[Nico Haase]

Please share more details. How exactly would you do that? Also, what do you mean by "half url"?