How do you get the 'referer' header in PHP?

Question

I want the the url of the page from which a request has been made. How can I do that in PHP?

score 28 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 23 '09 at 07:47

28

The refer(r)er can be found in the $_SERVER global variable. Please note that sending the refer(r)er is completely optional and a user-agent can simply decide to not send the refer(r)ing url.

$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']

answered Jun 23 '09 at 07:47

Stefan Gehrig

82,642
24
155
189

I have two questions: 1- It is optional, OK, but does it possible changed by the user agent. i.e foobar.com, the user agent could send it as barfoo.net?! 2- Does web crawler's such as Google-Bot, regarded as user agent? – SaidbakR Aug 24 '14 at 12:24
1

The referrer can be changed by the browser, by a browser plugin, by some network component (proxy) or by some malware code for example. And yes, most bots identify themselves using the user-agent string. – Stefan Gehrig Aug 24 '14 at 16:11

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 05 '14 at 16:19

9

$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']

The documentations are available here here.

edited Nov 05 '14 at 16:19

answered Jun 23 '09 at 07:48

TFM

544
5
11

Voted for adding link to the documentation. – Trygve Laugstøl Jan 18 '15 at 14:17

How do you get the 'referer' header in PHP?

2 Answers2

Linked