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Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 14:31:01 +0100
Message-ID: 
 <FAB6A3A2CC5BDB448DADFA1C8C0752965F7138@SOMEXEVS001.ex.ordersx.org>
Thread-Topic: [users@httpd] Referring pages using apache + cgi scripts
Importance: normal
Priority: normal
Thread-Index: AcLTXVUDErq4FfxRSpmf9qtRc2RMsgABe8Vw
From: "Boyle Owen" <Owen.Boyle@swx.com>
To: <users@httpd.apache.org>
Subject: RE: [users@httpd] Referring pages using apache + cgi scripts

>-----Original Message-----
>From: William Turrell [mailto:wturrell@clara.co.uk]
>
>(perl code)
>my $q = new CGI;
>my $referer = $q->referer() || "";
>
>98-9% of the time it works, but for a few users it doesn't - 
>their referral
>page is blank in both the apache logfile and a logfile I'm 
>generating from
>the second CGI script.  I can also verify that in all cases 
>they definitely
>did go to the first page by looking back a few seconds.

The may indeed have accessed the first page, but are you sure that they
came to the second page by clicking a link in the first? If the simply
typed the URL of the second page into the address bar then the request
will have no "Referer" header (indeed, it MUST NOT, according to the
RFC).

>Any reason why this information wouldn't be being passed on? The people
>we've asked seem to have modern browsers (IE 5 or 6) and 
>operating systems
>(WinNT etc.), and I assumed that referral information was 
>mandatory anyway.

It is not mandatory as far as RFC 2068 (HTTP/1.1) is concerned. In fact,
the RFC advises that the client application (i.e. the browser) allows
the user to disable sending of the Referer header for reason of
confidentiality. Perhaps those few users have done this (BTW, does it
NEVER work for a few users or does it sometimes work for everyone?).

Rgds,
Owen Boyle


>Is there a solution?
>
>Thanks for your help,
>
>William
>
>
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