Return to last visited page on previous server

[yowza]

Is it possible to return to the last visited page on a previous server? I know it is possible to go back one, two, three, etc. pages with Javascript. However, can you go back to the previous domain name?

For instance, I am on a web page at widgets.com and I click a link that takes me to foo.com. Next I browse a few pages on foo.com. I would like a Javascript link on foo.com that takes me back to the last visited page of the referrer at widgets.com.

How would I do this? Is it possible to do this?

Thanks

[crashomon]

Hi, thats a tricky one! I'd be interested to see if thats possible to track that.

Perhaps using a cookie value?

Anyhow, here is code for those who DON'T know how to send someone back a page (or two or three, simply replace -1 with desired value) :

<a href="javascript:history.go(-1);">insert code to link back</a>

good luck!

Patrick Elward

[edited by: crashomon at 9:44 pm (utc) on June 25, 2004]

[yowza]

Thanks, but I already knew how to go back one page. However, I want to go back to the previous server. The number of pages could vary depending on the visitor.

[RonPK]

Yeah, a cookie should do. Or, without JavaScript, store the HTTP_REFERER in a session.

[yowza]

Can it be done with only javascript.?

I can't use a server side language.

I am using Mal's shopping cart and I am only allowed to use 255 characters of text and it can only be HTML or Javascript.

I want the visitor to be returned to the original product page when they click on the "continue shopping" button.

[yowza]

Does anybody know if this is possible? If it is possible with cookies, could you provide an example?

[RonPK]

Basically:

<script type="text/javascript">
var prevsite, mycookies = document.cookie;
var refpos = mycookies.indexOf("prevsite");
if (refpos == -1) {
 // store the referrer
 document.cookie = "prevsite=" + escape(document.referrer) + "path=/";
 prevsite = document.referrer;
} else {
 // read the value of prevsite in the cookie. 9 is the length of the string 'prevsite='
 var endpos = mycookies.indexOf(";", refpos + 9);
 if (endpos == -1) endpos = mycookies.length;
 prevsite = mycookies.substring(refpos + 9, endpos);
 prevsite = unescape(prevsite);
}
</script>

The script looks whether a cookie called prevsite is set. If not, set it to the referrer property of the document object. Note that JavaScript knows how to spell referrer ;)

As you want the cookie to expire as soon as the session ends, there is no need to set a expiration date/time. You do want the cookie to be valid all over your site, so the path is set to the webroot, /.

The script also produces the variable prevsite, which contains the (stored) referrer. You can now easily make a link with something like
document.write('<a href="'+prevsite+'">previous site</a>');

[yowza]

Great. Thanks!