My PHP click tracking scripts 'break' BACK button

kitenski · **kitenski**, WDF Noob Private message

Hi all,
I use some self written PHP scripts on my website, however I have just realised that if a user then clicks the back button from their browser, they go back to the tracking script, which forwards them straight back to where they came from!
Is there a way around this?
Simple example at http://www.pocketpcsoft.net, click the large FREEWARE in the tag cloud, and it calls http://www.pocketpcsoft.net/php/free....php?type=free which then redirects the user to http://www.pocketpcsoft.net/php/freeware.php
If the user then clicks BACK they end up at http://www.pocketpcsoft.net/php/free....php?type=free which then redirects the user once again to http://www.pocketpcsoft.net/php/freeware.php
the relevant snippet of freetrackcloud.php is as follows

Code How do I post code blocks?

 
$type = $_GET['type'];
$result=mysql_query( "UPDATE clickcloud SET count=count+1 WHERE name='$type'", $db);
mysql_close($db);
?>
<html>
<head>
<title><?=$type?></title>
</head>
<body>
<script>window.location.href="/php/freeware.php"</script>
</body>
</html>

***filburt1*** · ***filburt1***, bored Home page Private message

Use a server-side redirect. When you have access to something like PHP, client-side redirects are mostly pointless.

PHP How do I post PHP blocks?

header("Location: /somewhere");

You can't output anything before sending the header, even whitespace.

kitenski · **kitenski**, WDF Noob Private message

thanks alot, that has worked. I think the reason I did the client-side redirect was to include Google Analytics tracking code into the tracking php file, as otherwise Google seems to 'loose' the fact a user clicked on my tracklink.

Is there anyway to add the Google analytics in and still use server-side redirects?

regards,

Greg

***filburt1*** · ***filburt1***, bored Home page Private message

At that point, not that I know of. You could have some special (in some way) tracking code on the page that eventually redirects the user.

Google Analytics, as with all tracking programs that are client-side, are not reliable. One of our clients at work recently has gotten spikes in traffic due to what's essentially an advertising campaign. Google Analytics reported slightly lower pageviews that normal while AWStats (a server-side tracking program so always accurate) reported five times the normal number of pageviews.

kitenski · **kitenski**, WDF Noob Private message

Interesting thanks. I can enable either awstats or webalizer on my domain, I know zero about either of these, any recommendations?

***filburt1*** · ***filburt1***, bored Home page Private message

Webalizer is simpler but AWStats gives you more information. I prefer the latter.

Both (IIRC) generate some cache files which may count against your storage quota, so if you're low on space you might need to delete some things.

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