I am currently redoing some link structuring on a website. In the past we have used specific php files on the last step to direct the user to the proper place.

Example:

www.mysite.com/action/go-to-blue.php

or

www.mysite.com/action/short/go-to-red.php

www.mysite.com/action/tall/go-to-red.php

We are now restructuring to eliminate the /short/ or /tall/ directory. What this means is now "go-to-blue.php" will be doing some extra processing to make sure it sends the visitor to the proper place.

The static method of the past was quite effective, because, well, if they left from that page we knew we had it right. Now since we are 301 redirecting action/short/go-to-red.php to just action/go-to-red.php it is quite important on "go-to-red.php" that we realize a user may have been redirected from /short/ or /tall/.

So right now I am using HTTP_REFERRER and of course in my testing that works fine, but after a lot of reading it is clear that this is not a solid solution, so I was starting to brainstorm on other ways to check and make sure we get the proper referral information.

If we could check HTTP_REFERRER plus some other test, I would feel confident we have a pretty good system in place to send the visitor to the right place.

Some questions/comments:

1. Could I use a session variable or a cookie to accomplish this goal?
2. If so, would that be maintained through the 301 redirect? I don't see why it wouldn't be..
3. Passing the url in the url is not an option in this case.