Question

How do I get url of linking site

Asked by: WingYip

We run a bit of code in the session start event that checks on the existence of a querystring.

If the querystring is present, we run some other code which identifies the affiliate that is linking to us.

A total of 5 websites could be linking to us using the same querystring.  

I had expected that we would be able to capture the url of the linking site using Request.UrlReferrer but this is not working.  

Is there another way to capture the url. Surely if we can get the querystring, we can get the url?

Wing

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Asked On
2009-10-06 at 08:32:35ID24789263
Topic

Programming for ASP.NET

Participating Experts
3
Points
125
Comments
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Answers

 

by: Omego2KPosted on 2009-10-06 at 08:41:50ID: 25506320

Request.UrlReferrer is not guaranteed. The client tells you the referer and they may have a firewall that blocks it or a browser that messes something up.

 

by: arhamePosted on 2009-10-06 at 08:43:38ID: 25506345

Why isn't request.UrlReferrer working?  Something along these lines should work:

If not please give a little more detail on what exactly isn't working

If Page.IsPostBack Then
            'Do Nothing
        Else
            'Page is new, get referrer      
            Dim Url As Uri = Request.UrlReferrer
            Dim fromLink As String
            If (Url = Nothing) Then
                fromLink = ""
            Else
                fromLink = Url.ToString()
            End If
            Me.lblFromUrl.Text = fromLink
        End If
                                              
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by: WingYipPosted on 2009-10-06 at 08:49:31ID: 25506415

See below.  It is working but not from these 5 websites which are the only ones we need it to work for.

Wing

        'Capture affiliate_id if it exists
        If Not String.IsNullOrEmpty(Request.QueryString("aid")) Then
            Dim sAffiliateWebId As String
            sAffiliateWebId = UCase(Request.QueryString("aid"))
            'sAffiliateWebId = "c1ed5c6d-a32a-4fdc-a240-2e2494381111"
            If utilities.IsGUID(sAffiliateWebId) Then
                Dim g As New Guid(sAffiliateWebId)
                Dim ta As New poTableAdapters.affiliateTableAdapter
                
                Dim dtAffiliate As po.affiliateDataTable = ta.GetAffiliateByWebId(g)
                If dtAffiliate.Rows.Count > 0 Then
                    Dim rw As po.affiliateRow
                    rw = TryCast(dtAffiliate.Rows(0), po.affiliateRow)
                    Session("affiliate_web_id") = sAffiliateWebId
                    Session("affiliate_id") = rw.affiliate_id
                    If Not (Request.UrlReferrer Is Nothing) Then
                        Session("Url_Referrer") = Request.UrlReferrer.ToString
                    End If
                End If
            End If
        Else
            Session("affiliate_id") = Guid.Empty.ToString
        End If

                                              
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by: arhamePosted on 2009-10-06 at 08:55:58ID: 25506497

So you mentioned that the Querystring part is working absolutely fine, so if you simplify your situation and only put in the page load...
Does it give you the value of the website referring?

If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
    If Not (Request.UrlReferrer Is Nothing) Then
       Response.Write(Request.UrlReferrer.ToString())
    End If
End If

 

by: HainKurtPosted on 2009-10-06 at 10:31:54ID: 25507543

what about this?

Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER")

 

by: WingYipPosted on 2009-10-07 at 01:02:46ID: 25512988

arhame as I said, the UrlReferrer code is working fine for certain other sites (google doesnt forward this info I notice but will not work for the 5 sites that we are trying to filter.

I am trying to use servervariables as suggested by HainKurt but I have a strong feeling that the UrlReferrer is simply  a wrapper for ServerVariables("HTTP_REFERER").

I think Omego2K may be correct but he hasnt explained why this is the case which would be useful to know.

Wing

 

by: WingYipPosted on 2009-10-07 at 01:04:17ID: 25512995

Apologes Omego2K, you have explained in part I realised but why is it the querystring gets through but not the url?

 

by: WingYipPosted on 2009-10-10 at 12:53:25ID: 31637759

thanks

 

by: Omego2KPosted on 2009-10-10 at 13:39:32ID: 25543719

sorry for not responding, the URL from the referring site comes from the users browser. Why it's not coming from their browser may be for several reasons, two that come to mind are their security settings and/or their firewall. From what I read before on the topic some norton firewall will block this by default. There may be other client side issues that we simply can't know because we don't have their computer.

 

by: Omego2KPosted on 2009-10-10 at 13:41:02ID: 25543725

also the query string will generally go through because it is part of the url to your site not the referring site(logical guess at least)

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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