[thelist] php Processing GET Variable from Outside Link

Ron Dorman rwd at csi1st.net
Fri Sep 26 13:23:40 CDT 2003


Having a frustrating issue with GET variables being picked up from 
outside links. I have tested several scenarios and seem to have it 
narrowed down to this:

A member email is sent out with a link back to the sending site. The 
link contains a variable which is to be read and stuffed into the 
session variables array by the linked web page. The existing code works 
well, most of the time, but fails sometimes when the mail client is 
Outlook Express. I have tested with IE 6 and NS 7 as the default 
browsers that the link opens into. If another browser window of the same 
type (IE or NS) is open, the SESSION variable does not get set, 
sometimes. However if there are no other browser windows open, the 
SESSION variable does get set. I don't have the issue using NS mail client.

I can't determine if there is a session handling issue, browser issue, 
or something else. The code is simple:

the link being clicked is:
    http://www.testsite.com/index.php?variable1=data1

the lines at the top of index.php doing the receiving:
    <?php
        set_magic_quotes_runtime(0);
        include("functions");    //    session_start happens after class 
definition at the top of the include
   
        if ($_GET[variable1] != "")
        {
            $SESSION[variable1] = $_GET[variable1];
        }
   
Any ideas to resolve the problem, or better methods to accomplish the 
desired results consistently would be much appreciated.

Ron D.




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