NYCPHP Meetup

[charlie derr]

Kristina Anderson wrote:
> Full text of what I was trying to post, below:
> 
> Hi Paul,
> 
> As someone pointed out earlier this week, unless your app is set up so 
> that the only entry point to it is a link from another URL, in most 
> cases your user's entry point into your app would be typing the address 
> directly, in which case there would not be an HTTP_REFERRER.
> 
> HTTP_REFERRER's most common use is to track marketing and sales data 
> coming from links on affiliates' websites, in emails, and etc. and 
> records the URL of the referring site.    So you could determine, for 
> instance, which one of your 10 affiliate sites sends the most customers 
> (and how many each sends), or what percentage of persons you send an 
> email to actually click on your sales link.
> 
> In your case, if your concern is that you want to ensure that users 
> exit your app, I feel that programmatically closing the browser window 
> would not only accomplish that but be best for security reasons.  

Wow, I have to disagree strongly with this (not that it's incorrect, but it is incomplete).  The only way I would think this is an 
even remotely possible design choice is if your users are "captive" in some way.  That is, you don't care at all how much you 
annoy them (because for whatever reaason they *have* to use your app).  I'm pretty sure that if the site is one that needs to 
"attract" or "retain" users in any way, programmatically closing the browser window is not something which should be considered 
(even if you could find a way to even effectively do it across all browsers).

> Or, 
> in the alternative, but way more annoying to users, you can use headers 
> to send them outside your app to another URL.

While I don't dispute that some users might find that annoying, I would argue that few would find it more annoying than closing 
the browser window.   In any event it's certainly possible to log the user out without redirecting them away to a foreign url. 
And I do think Kristina gives a lot of other good information.

	~c

> 
> If you programmatically send them back to the logon page, the back 
> button won't then send them to the website they may have previously 
> been on, but back to a previous page in your own app.
> 
> -- Kristina
>