knowing how they arrived!

[Tom Gahagan]

I'm developing an web app where the customer will use pay pal to pay for
screen savers. I want to make sure that they have arrived at my download
page from the pay pal page.

Is there any way to check a visitor's web browser to see if it was just sent
to the page from a paypal.com address? I.e... can I get the last url??? or
something that will let me know where they came from?

Thanks....
Tom Gahagan

[Anthony Saffer]

I'm not sure what ASP code you'd use for this but the information you're
looking for is the HTTP REFERER enviroment variable.

Anthony

[Atrax _]

Request.ServerVariables("http_referer")

though this is not 100% reliable by any means.
I've given up and authenticate manually.

________________________________________
I got bored with my old signature,
so I changed it

Atrax. MVP, IIS
http://rtfm.atrax.co.uk/

*** Sent via Developersdex http://www.developersdex.com ***
Don't just participate in USENET...get rewarded for it!

[Tom Gahagan]

Thanks Anthony!!! :)
Tom G.

[Tom Gahagan]

"Atrax _" wrote in message

> Request.ServerVariables("http_referer")
>
>
> though this is not 100% reliable by any means.
> I've given up and authenticate manually.
>

Ok.... thanks!
Since I still fairly new and wanting to learn I'm going to ask more.. hope
this is not a bother. If you can point me to an article or code, etc then
that's fine! :)

When and why is this not reliable?
AND
How are you going about authenticating manually. Again, I'm really not
asking you to do it for me!!! Just get me pointed in the direction! < g >
Please! < vbg >

Thanks
Tom Gahagan

[Aaron Bertrand [MVP]]

> When and why is this not reliable?

http://www.aspfaq.com/2169

> How are you going about authenticating manually. Again, I'm really not
> asking you to do it for me!!! Just get me pointed in the direction! < g >

Jay McVinney wrote this article a while back:
http://www.aspfaq.com/2114

--
Aaron Bertrand, SQL Server MVP
http://www.aspfaq.com/

Please reply in the newsgroups, but if you absolutely
must reply via e-mail, please take out the TRASH.

[Tom Gahagan]

THANKS very, very much! :)

This is a really great newsgroup.

Tom G.

[Tom Gahagan]

>
> Jay McVinney wrote this article a while back:
> http://www.aspfaq.com/2114
>

Duh..... I thought he was talking about a way to get the last url manually!
Can we all say duh! < vbg > < wipes egg off of face >

Yea the persmissons is already in place I was just hoping for an extra level
of security with knowing that the user had definatly come from pay pal. I've
about decided to go with a tranaction number that follows the user through
the process and gets updated at each stop and then each page checks to make
sure the last page "end" code was added.... or something equally stupid like
that! < g >

Anyway.... thanks.
Tom Gahagan

[Gerald]

At least Netscape 6.1 doesnt send any referer.

Gerald

"Tom Gahagan" <tgah...@charter.net> wrote in message
news:OnEMzZ82...@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

[Atrax _]

>> How are you going about authenticating manually.

I wait for the email from paypal saying 'you've been paid', then I go
and process the transaction myself. that's about as manual as you can
get

> At least Netscape 6.1 doesnt send any referer.

and there's me assuming that's an optional feature.
some 'privacy' based proxies do the same, though really it doesn't
matter. if it's unreliable, does it matter why, since you can't do a
thing about it?

[Tom Gahagan]

> I wait for the email from paypal saying 'you've been paid', then I go
> and process the transaction myself. that's about as manual as you can
> get
>

LOL!!! Yea.... it is!
I kind of thought you were talking in terms of getting the info some other
way than referer. :)

Again...thanks for the heads up.

Tom G.

[DBuck]

There is not a good way to know that they came from Pay Pal. You could try
HTTP_REFERER, but you will find that some browsers don't fulfill it at all
and others only fulfill it when a link is clicked. I'm assuming that you
are wanting to use the Pay Pal forwarding option (after payment, they will
forward back to your site). I don't believe that you will find the referrer
is fulfilled by this in most cases.

Instead, what I do is use the Pay Pal instant verification (IPN - Instant
Payment Notification) and update my database with the current payment
status. They will send a notification when payment is received/verified
(instantly, and it's free), so I can check my database for payment status
and take the appropriate actions. For more information, look for IPN on the
Pay Pal site.

If you decide to use IPN and need some help, I can send you some example
code (there is also some code on the Pay Pal site)...

HTH,
Dave

"Tom Gahagan" <tgah...@charter.net> wrote in message

news:erKYZx72...@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...