Wildcards in URLs?

[Drymetal]

Can you use wildcards in URLs in PHP?  For instance:

<?php $MyUrl= 'http://mysite.com/'; ?>

Are there wildcards or something I can throw at the end of that so all subdirectories and files are included in that?

Thanks!

[bregent]

You can put whatever you want in there. What matters is how you intend to process that variable in your php script. If you put a '*' at the end of the url, then your script would need to detect that and take appropriate action. It's not clear what your intent is here.

[Drymetal]

Let's say it was something like this:

$myUrl = 'http://mysite.com/';
    $checkLength = strlen($myUrl);
    $referringQuacks = substr($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], 0 , $checkLength);
    if ($referringQuacks== $myUrl)
    { 
blah blah blah

So as stupid as it sounds - I want to make sure that the person is being referred by the site they are on.  But if there is a subdirectory - this doesn't work.  So I want that myUrl variable to include not only the domain - but all subdomains as well.

Does that make sense?

[bregent]

I don't know exactly why you are checking referers but I don't think you really don't need to worry about subdirectories here. The way you are doing it now, checking the substring for a match, should work. Typically you wouldn't care if the referer came from a subfolder. Don't forget to account for cases where the visitor might enter 'www' in the url. I know there are functions in ASP that allow you to get the domain portion of a url; I'm sure php has similar.

Be aware that many things such as browser settings, add-ons, firewalls (personal and corporate) will block http_referer. So if you are relying on a match before executing some critical function (form posting, etc), it will fail frequently.

[Drymetal]

I created a mobile portion of the site and I can redirect it easily enough using this:

<script type="text/javascript">
if (screen.width <= 699) {
document.location = "http://mysite.com/mobile/";
}
</script>

That works fine.  But then I thought - Hey!  What if they want to see the normal site (from their mobile device or iPad)?  So then I put a link on the mobile site going to the normal site and ran into a paradox of sorts.  It kept sending them to the mobile site because of the screen check.

So then I tried to come up with code to by pass this.  So this is what I came up with:

<?php
    $myUrl = 'http://mysite.com/';

    $mobileUrl= 'http://mysite.com/mobile/';

    $checkLength = strlen($mobileUrl);

    $referringQuacks = substr($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], 0 , $checkLength);

    if ($referringQuacks== $mobileUrl)
    {
        $chicken;
    }
    elseif ($referringQuacks == $myUrl)
    {
                    $chicken;
          }
          else
          {
          echo '<script type="text/javascript">
          if (screen.width <= 699) {
          document.location = "http://mysite.com/mobile/";
}
</script>';  
}
?>

So basically - it is saying if the referrer is the mobile site then don't do anything.  I have $chicken cause I don't know how to say "Do nothing". 

If it is the main url:  mysite.com/   Then do nothing.

If it is any other instance - then run the javascript to check screensize and redirect to mysite.com/mobile/ if it is smaller than 699.

But then I thought - I don't need to check the mobile directory.  I could just do away with that and use the mysite.com/ url.  In other words - since the mobile directory is on the URL - then why not just have one URL that includes all subdirectories?

If only I had a wildcard to say not just that url - but any subdirectories on it as well.

Sorry for the confusion on subdomains and subdirectories.  Anyways - does that make sense?  I just confused myself.  : (

Message was edited by: Drymetal

[bregent]

>So basically - it is saying if the referrer is the mobile site then don't

>do anything.  I have $chicken cause I don't know how to say "Do nothing".

If you don't want to do anything when a comparison tests positive, then typically you would reverse the logic and do something if it tests negative (basic boolean logic):

if ($referringQuacks != $mobileUrl){

do something

{

But I don't know if I'd be using referers here to accomplish what you want. Your mobile site has a link to the normal site. Why not add a querystring to the link that can be used to turn off the screen width test. You could even write a cookie or set a session variable (if you are using sessions) to make it persist.

[Drymetal]

I thought of using a query string - however, after they get to the home page and click on a link - that query string will be gone and they'll get redirected again.  I've got the script for the window size in the header file.  So it loads on every page.

A session might work.  I would just use an if isset statement for a session wouldn't I?

[bregent]

>So I want that myUrl variable to include not only the domain - but all subdomains as well.

Sorry, I didn't see your comments before posting my previous reply. Are you talking about subfolders, or subdomains?

>So as stupid as it sounds - I want to make sure that the person is being referred by the site they are on.

Can you clarify this a bit? What is the workflow that you are concerned with?