Are subdomains right in this case?

question about routing and subdomains

[sarahk]

I'm designing some new content for a site I manage. I use PHP.

If the new content is accessed through the existing pages I want to show the content with the original header.

If the new content is accessed through a sister site then I want to show the content without the graphical headers.

Ways to do this
* use subdomains ie change the 'www' to 'pia' for the sister site, grap the server name and show the header etc.
* pass variables with the url ie?externallink
* use sessions in the existing site and check to see if the session exists.

I'd rather do the subdomain method but would this actually work?

[StanBo]

AFAIK subdomains will work for the scheme described. It might not be an optimal solution, but if that's what you feel comfortable with - go for it.

[sarahk]

what would be optimal in your opinion?

technically I have the skills, strategically I'm still a bit naive! so I value others opinions.

thanks

Sarah

[killroy]

how about referer tracking?

SN

PS: I used a scheme where I had two domains showing thesame stuff with different logos. I used apache to set environment variables that I captured in the script.

[sarahk]

Yep, I'll try that. There are quite a few pages so this would be the flow
* test for environment variable
* if absent then check referrer

thanks for your help!