Remember a visitor's original referer
Remember a visitor's original referer in session. The referer is (highest priority first):
- The
utm_source
query parameter - The domain from the request's
Referer
header if there's an external host in the URL - Empty
Installation
You can install the package via composer:
composer require spatie/laravel-referer
The package will automatically register itself in Laravel 5.5. In Laravel 5.4. you'll manually need to register the Spatie\Referer\RefererServiceProvider
service provider in config/app.php
.
You can publish the config file with:
php artisan vendor:publish --provider="Spatie\Referer\RefererServiceProvider"
Publishing the config file is necessary if you want to change the key in which the referer is stored in the session or
if you want to disable a referer source.
return [
/*
* The key that will be used to remember the referer in the session.
*/
'session_key' => 'referer',
/*
* The sources used to determine the referer.
*/
'sources' => [
Spatie\Referer\Sources\UtmSource::class,
Spatie\Referer\Sources\RequestHeader::class,
],
];
Usage
To capture the referer, all you need to do is add the Spatie\Referer\CaptureReferer
middleware to your middleware stack. In most configuration's, you'll only want to capture the referer in "web" requests, so it makes sense to register it in the web
stack. Make sure it comes after Laravel's StartSession
middleware!
// app/Http/Kernel.php
protected $middlewareGroups = [
'web' => [
// ...
\Illuminate\Session\Middleware\StartSession::class,
// ...
\Spatie\Referer\CaptureReferer::class,
// ...
],
// ...
];
The easiest way to retrieve the referer is by just resolving it out of the container:
use Spatie\Referer\Referer;
$referer = app(Referer::class)->get(); // 'google.com'
Or you could opt to use Laravel's automatic facades:
use Facades\Spatie\Referer\Referer;
$referer = Referer::get(); // 'google.com'
The captured referer is (from high to low priority):
- The
utm_source
query parameter, or: - The domain from the request's
Referer
header if there's an external host in the URL, or: - Empty
An empty referer will never overwrite an exisiting referer. So if a visitor comes from google.com and visits a few pages on your site, those pages won't affect the referer since local hosts are ignored.
Forgetting or manually setting the referer
The Referer
class provides dedicated methods to forget, or manually set the referer.
use Referer;
Referer::put('google.com');
Referer::get(); // 'google.com'
Referer::forget();
Referer::get(); // ''
Changing the way the referer is determined
The referer is determined by doing checks on various sources, which are defined in the configuration.
return [
// ...
'sources' => [
Spatie\Referer\Sources\UtmSource::class,
Spatie\Referer\Sources\RequestHeader::class,
],
];
A source implements the Source
interface, and requires one method, getReferer
. If a source is able to determine a referer, other sources will be ignored. In other words, the sources
array is ordered by priority.
In the next example, we'll add a source that can use a ?ref
query parameter to determine the referer. Additionally, we'll ignore ?utm_source
parameters.
First, create the source implementations:
namespace App\Referer;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Spatie\Referer\Source;
class RefParameter implements Source
{
public function getReferer(Request $request): string
{
return $request->get('ref', '');
}
}
Then register your source in the sources
array. We'll also disable the utm_source
while we're at it.
return [
// ...
'sources' => [
App\Referer\RefParameter::class,
Spatie\Referer\Sources\RequestHeader::class,
],
];
That's it! Source implementations can be this simple, or more advanced if necessary.
Changelog
Please see CHANGELOG for more information what has changed recently.
Testing
composer test
Contributing
Please see CONTRIBUTING for details.
Security
If you discover any security related issues, please email freek@spatie.be instead of using the issue tracker.
Postcardware
You're free to use this package, but if it makes it to your production environment we highly appreciate you sending us a postcard from your hometown, mentioning which of our package(s) you are using.
Our address is: Spatie, Samberstraat 69D, 2060 Antwerp, Belgium.
We publish all received postcards on our company website.
Credits
Support us
Spatie is a webdesign agency based in Antwerp, Belgium. You'll find an overview of all our open source projects on our website.
Does your business depend on our contributions? Reach out and support us on Patreon.
All pledges will be dedicated to allocating workforce on maintenance and new awesome stuff.
License
The MIT License (MIT). Please see License File for more information.