NYCPHP Meetup

[Kristina Anderson]

Charlie -- I do agree 100% that it's best from a design standpoint to 
just log them out and then let them choose the next action.  However, 
the original question from Paul was how to programmatically get them to 
another URL (or at best out of his URL) after using the app...so that 
is what I addressed.

Maybe if Paul can give some additional feedback on why he needs to do 
that specifically, we can better advise him on best practice.

-- Kristina

> 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
> > 
> 
> 
> 
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-------------------
Kristina D. H. Anderson
Senior Application Developer/Consultant
"Building a Better Tomorrow, One Line of Code at a Time"
646-247-4987