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$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 10:56 am
by psurrena
Is there any problem with using $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] as a link for back buttons?

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:32 am
by Jonah Bron
I don't know, but I would use Javascript:

Code: Select all

<input type="button" value="go back" onclick="history.back();" />

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:52 pm
by Mordred
Both will not work always. Opera for example has quite convenient means of disabling both javascript and referer [sic] logging.
Why would you want that, the browsers already have back buttons.

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:59 pm
by psurrena
Usability. I'm working on a large site that has a lot of older users who are uncomfortable with the web. I like to give them more than one way to navigate.

Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 10:11 pm
by RobertGonzalez
HTTP_REFERER is not set by all browsers so it is totally unreliable for use in a large scale environment.

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 5:01 am
by Mordred
psurrena wrote:Usability. I'm working on a large site that has a lot of older users who are uncomfortable with the web. I like to give them more than one way to navigate.
Well, I hate to break it to you, but users actually ignore navigation widgets. They click on links and they trackback with their back buttons.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't provide useful navigation for those who would use it, but it would be better to implement breadcrumbs than redundant back buttons.

Just my 2% :)

Posted: Sat Nov 17, 2007 8:17 am
by psurrena
breadcrumbs are a good idea...

A bit more information than I'd like but good non-the-less.

Thanks for all of your opinions.