Save the Original Referer

anyone know how i can save the original site referer in a variable for use in a later page?

for ex:

homepage.php
<?php
session_start();
$_session["orig_referer"] = $_server[http_referer];

// do stuff then user goes to page2.php
?>

page2.php
<?
session_start();
echo $_session["orig_referer"];
?>

what i want echoed in page2.php is the original referer, but unfortunately i get homepage.php as the referer.

any thoughts on how to save the original refer w/o cookies, DB, passing in URL or saving to a file?

 

are you including the file with $_session["orig_referer"] = $_server[http_referer]; in every page?
if that's the case, you can use an if statement to stop it being reset

if (!isset($_SESSION['orig_referer']))
{
       $_session["orig_referer"] = $_server[http_referer];
}

Code (markup):

 

nope. just once on the homepage, but apparently it gets reset automatically on each succeeding page.

 

If you set it in the $_SESSION variable, it should not get reset.

Edit: unless they click on another page and visit the homepage again. In that case, the code I gave you will also work.

 

it would seem that way but it isn't.

for ex:
on the homepage i did as a test:
$_session[xyz]="hello";
$_session[orig_referer]=$_server[http_referer];

then
echo $_session[xyz].$_session[orig_referer]
would output:
hello [then the true orig referer here]

on page2.php
session_start();
echo $_session[xyz].$_session[orig_referer]
would output:
hello homepage.php

the $_session[orig_referer] seems to change as the referer changes despite any new assignment.