Can you see anything dodgy in this code?

[Guest MrLeN]

I wrote this code. Basically it gets a user id (a referral id) from the browser and creates a 365 day cookie.

However, I also have a session created because cookies don't echo onto a page the first time a page loads. So That's why session variables are in the mix.

Everything works, fine. No problem. It does exactly what I want no matter if I log in or out, close the browser, start a new session .. it's all good.

UNTIL .. I enter a NEW id!

Then (and this happens in all browsers, so I know it's my code)..

If I echo the $_SESSION[''referrer_id] it doesn't know whether it wants to display the old id or the new id (it can intermittently display either, with a mind of its own).

I even added a line to END the old cookie, if a new ID is specified on line 23. But that doesn't work. It's still confused.
 

setcookie("referrer", "", time()-3600);

I am completely out of ideas.
 

<?php
session_start();
 
$current_url = "http://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";
$current_page = preg_replace('/\?.*/', '', $current_url);
 
$default_referrer = "1";
 
if (!isset($_COOKIE['referrer'])) {
  $user_info = get_userdata($default_referrer);
  $_SESSION['referrer_id'] = $user_info->user_login;
  $_SESSION['referrer'] = $user_info->user_email;
  $int = 60 * 60 * 24 * 365 + time(); 
  setcookie("referrer",$default_referrer,time()+$int);
  //header('Location:' . $current_page);
 
}
$user_info = get_userdata($_COOKIE['referrer']);
$_SESSION['referrer_id'] = $user_info->user_login;
$_SESSION['referrer'] = $user_info->user_email;
 
if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  setcookie("referrer", "", time()-3600);
  $user_info = get_userdata($_GET['id']);
  $_SESSION['referrer_id'] = $user_info->user_login;
  $_SESSION['referrer'] = $user_info->user_email;
  $int = 60 * 60 * 24 * 365 + time(); 
  setcookie("referrer",$_GET['id'],time()+$int);
  //header('Location:' . $current_page . '/?ref=' . $_SESSION['referrer_id']);
}
 
?>

Edited April 9, 2018 by MrLeN

[Guest MrLeN]

Oh, maybe I should end the session AND the cookie! Duh..

..I'll try that!

[Guest MrLeN]

ok, I'll try this and see how I go. Thanks for your help everyone       

session_start();
 
$current_url = "http://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";
$current_page = preg_replace('/\?.*/', '', $current_url);
 
$default_referrer = "1";
 
if (!isset($_COOKIE['referrer'])) {
  $user_info = get_userdata($default_referrer);
  $_SESSION['referrer_id'] = $user_info->user_login;
  $_SESSION['referrer'] = $user_info->user_email;
  $int = 60 * 60 * 24 * 365 + time(); 
  setcookie("referrer",$default_referrer,time()+$int);
  //header('Location:' . $current_page);
 
}
$user_info = get_userdata($_COOKIE['referrer']);
$_SESSION['referrer_id'] = $user_info->user_login;
$_SESSION['referrer'] = $user_info->user_email;
 
if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
  setcookie("referrer", "", time()-3600);
unset($_SESSION['referrer_id']);
unset($_SESSION['referrer']);
  $user_info = get_userdata($_GET['id']);
  $_SESSION['referrer_id'] = $user_info->user_login;
  $_SESSION['referrer'] = $user_info->user_email;
  $int = 60 * 60 * 24 * 365 + time(); 
  setcookie("referrer",$_GET['id'],time()+$int);
  //header('Location:' . $current_page . '/?ref=' . $_SESSION['referrer_id']);
}

[Guest MrLeN]

Nope, it didn't work. It's still getting confused

[kicken]

It sounds like you have your referrer id value coming in from potentially different sources. What you need to do is decide on the priority of those sources and then check for a value in that order.

$referrerId = $default_referrer;
if (isset($_GET['id'])){
    $referrerId = $_GET['id'];
} else if (isset($_COOKIE['referrer'])){
    $referrerId = $_COOKIE['referrer'];
}

That will assign $referrerId the value from $_GET['id'] if it exists, otherwise $_COOKIE['referrer'] if it exists, and if neither of those exist fall back to $default_referrer.

 

After that, you know your referrer so you just do whatever you need to do with it.

//Set the cookie for future page loads.
$duration = 60 * 60 * 24 * 365;
setcookie('referrer', $referrerId, time() + $duration);

//Grab the user's details
$userInfo = get_userdata($referrerId);

//Do whatever with $userInfo

[Guest MrLeN]

Thanks Kicken

I have everything working now.

Here's the code I finally ended with. I had  a heap of unnecessary code.

session_start();
 
$current_url = "http://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";
$current_page = preg_replace('/\?.*/', '', $current_url);
 
$default_referrer = "1";
$int = 60 * 60 * 24 * 365 + time(); 
 
if (isset($_GET['id'])) {
setcookie("referrer",$_GET['id'], time()+$int, '/');;
  $_COOKIE['referrer'] = $_GET['id'];
}
if (!isset($_COOKIE['referrer'])) {
  //print "<pre>"; print "We just checked cookie, it's not set.<br>"; var_dump($_COOKIE); print "</pre>";
  setcookie("referrer",$default_referrer,time()+$int, '/');
  $_COOKIE['referrer'] = $default_referrer;
}
$user_info = get_userdata($_COOKIE['referrer']);
$_SESSION['referrer_id'] = $user_info->user_login;
$_SESSION['referrer'] = $user_info->user_email;

[kicken]

You're setting your cookie expire time to something absurd by adding time() twice. Either remove it from your definition of $int or remove it from the setcookie call.

[Guest MrLeN]

Actually, it's set to 2067 lol.

I was wondering why...

[Guest MrLeN]

Hey, at least my affiliates will get paid until they're 114.

It's a great deal!

[dalecosp]

Hey, at least my affiliates will get paid until they're 114.

 

It's a great deal!

True dat ... HECK of a lot better than eBay