How do I dynamically generate tracking links?

[kentuckyslone]

Hello everyone,

I am working on a project for an incentives based wbe site. Basically members will be paid to complete offers, sign up for trials, make purchases, etc.

I need a way to dynamically generate tracking links for members who are logged in so that it can be known which members completed an action so that particular person's account can be credited.

Do I need a certain script? or what do I need to do?

Thanks in advance I really appreciate any help.

David

[ckarg]

The technology reqiured to achieve what you want depends on the technology running the web site. A php site will achieve this in a different way to a perl cgi site, or a .shtml site. What technology is running your site?

Beyond that, you need to define what you want in your server logs. If you want a userid, then that needs to become part of the url. A session id may also work. Once you've identified a user on your site, you then just need to append this ID to all href urls.

[kentuckyslone]

The site is php. I am using a script called loginwa to validate user access. Curently (dumb I know but it is the only way I know how to do it for now) I create a different directory for each user and manually change the urls to add their sub ID. When a user logs in from the main site I have them redirected to their particular folder. You can imagine the deal of work that goes into doing this as my member base grows.

I need to have only one directory for the site with all members going to the same exact pages but I need for the urls to be dynamically appended with the members ID (ie?sid=#*$!x) depending upon their log in.

I know that there are many many sites that utilize this. Do I need a certain script? or what is it that I need to do to accomplish this?

Thanks
David

[ckarg]

Investigate the php documentation on 'session's. A session works such that each visitor is given a unique ID for the duration of their visit, across multiple pages on your site.

With the session id, you can keep track of the user name your visitor used, and then show specific content to that individual.

[kentuckyslone]

I appreciate you taking the time to reply to my question. But I do not want to show different content to each user. Thats my whole question above. I want to show each user the same content.

What I want to do is to append an ID tag to the end of the urls that they click so that each user can be tracked as I explained above.