Mod request to show URL

Emil

Hello everybody,

I am trying to setup this help desk but I want to give it a twist.

I have lots of domains where I advertise my business. What I want to do is make a better contact system for my customers. Right now I am using a simple PHP form that emails me but it's horrible with spammers and all that.

So this is where this help desk might be helpful. The only thing is I want to be able to install it on one site and refer all the other sites to this.

That's all fine but I want to be able to track what website referred them. So basically I need to modify the ticket system where the customer can send me a URL of where they came from. The thing is I don't want to have the customer type in the URL so I want to have a disabled text box just show up the URL and all that gets sent along with the ticket information.

P.S. Just so I know I have basic PHP skills. I was able to modify all the form where the text box shows up but I need help on the back site where the PHP will figure out where the customer comes from.

Thanks for any input!

Emil

teryakisan

The first thing you'll need to do is get the URL of the referring page.

<?php

$ref = getenv("HTTP_REFERER");

?>

Then you could drop that into the value of a hidden input.

<input type="hidden" name="referrer" value="<?=$ref?>" />

Later on, when you need the URL,

<?=$HTTP_POST_VARS?>

I'm pretty sure that should put you somewhere nearly on the right track.

Emil

Thank you teryakisan for your reply,

EDIT:

Well I was thinking about this and it hit me that I don't particularly need to show this information upon opening the new ticket but I really need to show it on the tickets.php in the staff section as well as the individual ticket when it's opened so I guess I can modify the "source" field somehow.

Now, for some reason I followed your advice but I'm still getting a blank area where the URL is supposed to show up.

I put the code inside tickets.inc.php as follows:

$ref = getenv("HTTP_REFERER"); inside the <?php .... ?> sections on the top of the page, then I added a new field where the tickets show up called Website and under it this code:

<td nowrap>

<input type="hidden" name="referrer" value="<?=$ref?>" />

<?=$HTTP_POST_VARS?>

<?=Format:($row,22,strpos($row,'@'))?> </td>

but still nothing :

maybe I'm not calling the variables right?

Thanks,

Emil

teryakisan

Lets try a different avenue. Doing it this way will require that you send all your site support links directly to the root open.php page as this is where the form is and HTTP_REFERER only gives you the previous page.

Before we start on the code, we'll need somewhere in the database to store the referring URL's. Let's create a new column on ost_ticket, called "referer".

You'll need access to PHPMyAdmin or some other database manipulation software.

Run this SQL query....

ALTER TABLE ost_ticket ADD COLUMN referer varchar(255);

in main.inc.php

find this code...

ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0);

and REPLACE it with this code...

/*ini_set('session.use_trans_sid', 0);*

PS. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT REPERCUSSIONS (IF ANY) THE ABOVE EDIT WILL HAVE AND ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANYTHING. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

in open.inc.php

At the very top (line 1) add this code...

<?php

session_start();

if($_SERVER){

$_SESSION = $_SERVER;

}

?>

lets put the referring URL into our hidden input...

Find this code...

<textarea name="message" cols="35" rows="8" wrap="soft" style="width%"><?=$info?></textarea></td>

</tr>

Directly below add this...

<input type="hidden" name="referer" value="<?php

echo $_SERVER;

?>" />

Now we need to edit class.ticket.php to get the value from the field and write it to the database...

find this code...

var $overdue;

under it add this...

var $referer;

find this code...(around line 74)

$this->fullname =$row;

under it add this...

$this->referer =$row;

find this code...(around line 139)

function getName(){

return $this->fullname;

}

under it add this...

function getReferer(){

return $this->referer;

}

Find this code...(around line 1096)

$fields = array('type'=>'string', 'required'=>1, 'error'=>'Name required');

under it add this...

$fields = array('type'=>'string', 'required'=>0, 'error'=>'Referer required');

Find this code...(around line 1144)

',name='.db_input(Format:($var)).

under it add this...

',referer='.db_input(Format:($var)).

Find this code...(around line 1185)

$fields = array('type'=>'string', 'required'=>1, 'error'=>'Name required');

Under it add this...

$fields = array('type'=>'string', 'required'=>0, 'error'=>'Referer required');

Find this code...(around line 1133)

',name='.db_input(Format:($var)).

Under it add this...

',referer='.db_input(Format:($var)).

This code is tested and working on my server.

Now you have hidden field "referrer" writing its value (HTTP_REFERER) to the database.

Emil

Wow..

You are a life saver! I would have never figured that out! :

One thing, I noticed that you said I have to go to include/client/open.inc.php directly instead of root/open.php. Well when I do that, it gives me a 403 Forbidden no matter what directory/file I put in.

www.mydomain.com/support/open.php(www.mydomain.com/support/open.php) works fine but it does not give me any referring url...

Is this changed by the Permissions, or somewhere else? I can't seem to get out of this 403

Thanks

Emil

teryakisan

O_o

yessir you are correct. Send your site support links directly to the root open.php page. It was about 3am here when I wrote that...sorry.

Are you absolutely sure that your not getting the URL? Check the very last row on database column "referer". You can also change the field type from "hidden" to "text" and it will display on the open.php page for testing purposes. Put it back to "hidden" once you have verified you are getting the referring URL.

Also, HTTP_REFERER is dependent on the users browser to get the information from the users history and is famously known for being un-reliable, depending on the browser. Firefox seems to work fine for me, your mileage may vary.

Emil

yay! It's working! (The problem was I never updated the modified open.inc.php file on the server) lol but I set it from hidden to text and it showed up with the right site.

Now that's it's hidden again, I need to figure out how to call this and display it in the staff's side where they see all tickets and I can maybe use the "Source" field when they open up a particular ticket...

-Emil

Emil

Well I got this far (see picture)

but when I put in:

<td nowrap><?=$row?> </td>

nothing shows up... am I missing something?

Thanks!

Emil

teryakisan

were those two tickets made before or after you successfully applied the mod?

If they are from before, then there may be no URL written to the database. Please check the very last row on column "referer" in table ost_ticket. If the URL is not there, try going to your referring site, click the link to open.php and create a new ticket. Check the database again. If its still not there, we have a problem.

Remember, you can't type in the url to get to open.php. It MUST be sent from a link on a previous page to have a "referer".

teryakisan

D' OH!! We forgot to add the referer to the $qselect. O_o

In tickets.inc.php find this code...

$qselect = 'SELECT DISTINCT ticket.ticket_id,lock_id,ticketID,ticket.dept_id,ticket.staff_id,subject,name,ticket.email,dept_name,staff.firstname,staff.lastname '.

',ticket.status,ticket.source,isoverdue,ticket.created,pri.*,CASE WHEN status = "open" THEN FLOOR(TIME_TO_SEC(TIMEDIFF(now(),ticket.created))/60) ELSE FLOOR(TIME_TO_SEC(TIMEDIFF(ticket.closed,ticket.created))/60) END AS timeopen,count(attach.attach_id) as attachments ';

$qfrom=' FROM '.TICKET_TABLE.' ticket LEFT JOIN '.DEPT_TABLE.' dept ON ticket.dept_id=dept.dept_id '.

' LEFT JOIN '.STAFF_TABLE.' staff ON ticket.staff_id=staff.staff_id';

Replace it with this code...

$qselect = 'SELECT DISTINCT ticket.ticket_id,lock_id,ticketID,ticket.dept_id,ticket.staff_id,subject,name,referer,ticket.email,dept_name,staff.firstname,staff.lastname '.

$qfrom=' FROM '.TICKET_TABLE.' ticket LEFT JOIN '.DEPT_TABLE.' dept ON ticket.dept_id=dept.dept_id '.

' LEFT JOIN '.STAFF_TABLE.' staff ON ticket.staff_id=staff.staff_id';

There we go, 100% working across the board.

Emil

Which tickets.inc.php should I edit? I have 2, one in staff and one in the client folder

I got it! It was in the staff folder.

teryakisan, I can't thank you enough on helping me with this!!

teryakisan

Glad I could help. :

teryakisan

Now, teryakisan, do you remember my original issue where I wanted the staff to see where the customer came from with the HTTP referring url? How can I call that URL so it shows up when we open up the ticket itself? There's a value there called Source: and it says Web.. well I want it to show the actual referred URL that it saved into the DB...

Emil,

include/staff/viewticket.inc.php

Find this code...

$id=$ticket->getId(); //Ticket ID.

Directly below that add..

$ref=$ticket->getReferer(); //Get that referer.

Find this code...

<th>Source:</th>

Replace the below it with this code...

<td><?=$ticket->getReferer()?></td>

Emil

.... you're making it look too easy! :

I just can't thank you enough! This is great! Thank you!!