Determine if user came from inner link or an outside link

[yoda69]

Hey guys,

 

any php method or function to determine if a user came from within the website or from an outside website. I have a page that I want to display in different manners depends on how did the user arrive at my site.

 

I know about the HTTP_REFERER function. but don't really know how to use it. I know this is the syntax:

<?php
echo $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
?>

 

but when i entered the code in the php page. for instance test.php, there is nothing coming up.

So my questions:

 

1. is there any other method?

2. could any of you maybe specify a bit more details about this function and how to use it.

 

thanks a million.

[rarebit]

http://uk3.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.php

Value is set by user, so it can't always be trusted...

[AdRock]

This is how I check if the user came from my website

// Stop the form being used from an external URL
    // Get the referring URL
    $referer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
    // Get the URL of this page
    $this_url = "http://".$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
    // If the referring URL and the URL of this page don't match then
    // display a message and don't send the email.
    if ($referer != $this_url) {
        echo "You do not have permission to use this script from another URL.<br />";
echo "If you are behind a firewall please check your referrer settings.";
        exit;
    else {
        //do something else
    }
    }