Detecting entry url

[Robert Mark Bram]

Howdy All!

Let's say I have a single web page.. but bought three different domains, all
of which point to it.
So I can type
rob.com.au
or
robert.com.au
or
robertbram.com.au
and they will come to my page 'rob.htm'

Is there a way for to determine which url the user came from?

Thanks for any advice!

Rob

 

[David Dorward]

Let's say I have a single web page.. but bought three different domains,
all of which point to it.

Domains do not point to pages, they point to servers. You might have a
domain pointing to a server with some form of client side redirect on it.

Is there a way for to determine which url the user came from?

In the redirect scenario? No, not with any degree of reliability. HTTP
includes the referer[sic] header which user agents may use to send the URI
of the previously visited resource, however this is optional, and often
spoofed. (Unfortunately, the (standard violating) spoofing is on the
increase thanks to certain 'privacy protecting' personal firewall
products[1]).

If you had three domains pointing at the same server (and not the redirect
scenario your question suggests) then it is a trivial matter in most server
side environments to read the requested domain, you could even do it in
client side JavaScript (although client side scripting is unreliable and
shouldn't be depended upon for anything mission critical). The specifics
depend on the language you choose.

[1] If they want to hide the referer, why don't they just not send it?
Putting false data there is not helpful!

 

[William Tasso]

Let's say I have a single web page.. but bought three different
domains, all of which point to it.
...
Is there a way for to determine which url the user came from?

yes - your server scripting engine will have the necessary functionality to
tell you the url of the current script.