Must come from (Page name)

curtranhome · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 77

Hey, i need a code that will tell the user that they need to come from a page and then redirect them to that page before they see any of the data inside, is there by any chance someone that could point me in the rite direction or give me the code?

Thanx in advance
~curtranhome

kanenas · Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 341

Why is it so important that a visitor come from a specific page? If a user bookmarks a page, do they have to go to the required page when opening the bookmark? Make sure your implementation doesn't break links from external websites.

There are various possibilities to check that a visitor came from a page, but nothing foolproof.

check the Referer [sic] header, but this is often blocked by users out of privacy concerns.
set a cookie on the required page. Check for the cookie on other pages. Cookies are at least as likely to be blocked as the Referer header.
have the required page set a field in the query portion of the URL for all links and forms. Other pages propagate the field.

If you server side language supports sessions, you can use that rather than explicitly using options 2 and 3 (under the hood, sessions are implemented using cookies or the query string).

Once your server app has determined that a visitor hasn't been to the required page, use redirection.

How you accomplish the above depends on your server platform. If you want specific information, you should always post your development and server environment. You can read this and other tips in "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way".

curtranhome · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 77

i'm making password protected pages and my host (freewebs) does not support php or anything other than javascript, html, dhtml, etc. so i need javascript that can check if a user came from the login page so that the don't see any of the members only area of the page(s). and i'm a newbie in javascript, so i can't make the code right now, other wise i would. so if you can help me out, so i can learn what i need to do for this kind of thing, that would be very helpful.

Thank you ahead of time.

kanenas · Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 341

curtranhome · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 77

Ok thank you for the heads up, but as i read and finished your post. i came up with the idea of redirecting them to a page that will then check the required information and, if correct,will automatically redirect them to the members-only page and have that page require the 2nd redirection page. Is this anyway possible? sorry for extending my question beyond what it originally was supposed to be.

Thank you,
curtranhome

kanenas · Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 341

Sounds just as unreliable and insecure as your first approach, and I don't see any benefits. As I said before, you must use a reliable authentication scheme, which will require either server side scripting or HTTP authentication.

curtranhome · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 77

ok, then do you have any coding suggestions that I can use other than php, asp, cgi, etc?

kanenas · Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 341

As I said before,

curtranhome · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 77

ok thank you

curtranhome · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 77

OK, I just checked with my web server company (webs) and they say that they do not support .htaccess to non-paying members such as myself. So is there by any chance that i can use anything else?

kanenas · Joined: 14 Dec 2004 Posts: 341

If your host doesn't support scripting or server configuration for free accounts, your best bet is to get a different host rather than trying to put something together that will barely work & work poorly on your current host. You can find reviews of free hosts & lists of features online (eg a google search turned up Free-Webhosts.com).

PayneLess Designs · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 4289 Location: MS

There is one way to set up a password protected page and that is to let a trusted service do the PHP processing for you and just use their code.

Restrict access to selected website pages.

You can sign-up for a free account to access all the neat web tools and widgets.

Ron

curtranhome · Joined: 04 Jun 2008 Posts: 77

Ok thank you

PayneLess Designs · Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 4289 Location: MS

You're welcome. I've them before when I first started out and had a free site that did not allow PHP or any other scripting language.