Can I get the title of the referring page?

Question

$url = htmlspecialchars($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']); 
echo "<a href='$url'>Back to $url</a>";

So these two lines of PHP will output the URL of the previous (referring) page and a (clickable) link back to it. My question is? Is it possible to get the title of the previous page?

EDIT: See @ http://wp-staging.de/reiseziele/urlaub-mit-dem-hund If you click on the link in the first column and go to that post, you will see ← Back to http://wp-staging.de/reiseziele/urlaub-mit-dem-hund/ (= the previous page).

But I want the title of the previous page, not the URL

Are you guaranteed the previous page will always have a title? — Jay Blanchard, Jul 26 '16 at 18:01
You'd need to use CURL / file_get_contents and parse the HTML http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4348912/get-title-of-website-via-link — rjdown, Jul 26 '16 at 18:05
Maybe you can make a curl call to referer and explode html with DOM or SimpleXML. Also file_get_contents 'd work too to get referer's html. — Mehmet SÖĞÜNMEZ, Jul 26 '16 at 18:05

Quynh Nguyen · Answer 1 · 2016-07-26T19:22:31.037

2

I'm not sure this is the best solution for this case. But it's worked for me.

<?php
function get_title($url){
  $str = file_get_contents($url);
  if(strlen($str)>0){
    $str = trim(preg_replace('/\s+/', ' ', $str)); // supports line breaks inside <title>
    preg_match("/\<title\>(.*?)\<\/title\>/i",$str,$title); // ignore case
    return $title[1];
  }
}

$url = @$_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER];
echo "<a href='$url'>Back to ".get_title($url)."</a>";
?>

Result

edited Jul 26 '16 at 19:22

answered Jul 26 '16 at 18:16

Quynh Nguyen

2,959
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Yes, we are close. The title appears, but the result is quite odd. See http://wp-staging.de/reiseziele/urlaub-mit-dem-hund/ and then click on one of the images. Looks like an „iframe“ of the previous page. – user3350511 Jul 26 '16 at 18:40
You don't need Traum-Ferienwohnungen.de? replace `preg_match("/\(.*)\<\/title\>/i",$str,$title);` to `preg_match("/\<title>(.*)\-/i",$str,$title);` – Quynh Nguyen Jul 26 '16 at 18:45
No, it didn't work. As I said, the title (as a link) is there but the content of the previous page also. This is odd. – user3350511 Jul 26 '16 at 19:07
@user3350511 Worked or not bro? – Quynh Nguyen Jul 26 '16 at 19:44
No, it didn't work either. As I said, the title (as a link) is there but the content of the previous page also. This is odd. – user3350511 Jul 26 '16 at 20:07
@user3350511 I have updated my answer. I missed `?` in `preg_match`. See it bro. – Quynh Nguyen Jul 26 '16 at 20:08
@user3350511 It's worked perfect now. I tested with content of your site. – Quynh Nguyen Jul 26 '16 at 20:09
We should avoid extended discussions in comments. It works but still with – Traum-Ferienwohnungen.de – user3350511 Jul 26 '16 at 20:25
@user3350511 Replace `preg_match("/\(.*?)\<\/title\>/i",$str,$title); ` => `preg_match("/\<title>(.*)\–/i",$str,$title); ` – Quynh Nguyen Jul 26 '16 at 20:54

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 26 '16 at 18:05

1

You could try like this:

$html = file_get_contents($url);
preg_match_all('/<title>(.*?)<\/title>/s', $html, $matches);
print_r($matches[1]);

answered Jul 26 '16 at 18:05

mister martin

6,197
4
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2

It should be noted that doing this any time a referrer comes in will be **extremely** heavy on your server. It also exposes you to denial of service attacks (both on your server, and on someone else *via* your server) – ceejayoz Jul 26 '16 at 18:07
@ceejayoz good point. `$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']` should never be trusted as it can be changed / manipulated by the end user. – mister martin Jul 26 '16 at 18:09
@mister martin Instead of a link back, I am getting this: Array ( [0] => Urlaub mit dem Hund – Traum-Ferienwohnungen.de [1] => Facebook [2] => pinterest [3] => Instagram ) – user3350511 Jul 26 '16 at 18:56
@user3350511 It works perfectly on my end. Would be helpful to see what your actual target website is. Perhaps the HTML is broken. – mister martin Jul 26 '16 at 23:28

Can I get the title of the referring page?

2 Answers2