I have 2 pages :
1.php and 2.php
When the user arrives on 2.php, i want to show on 2.php that the user is arriving from google.com and NOT from 1.php
I tried spoofing the header of 2.php using
<?php
header();
?>
when i do a javascript document.write(document.referrer); it shows me 1.php
Any help is appreciated.
The http referrer is a request header. The server (PHP) can only set response headers.
Thus the only way to spoof a referrer is for the client to do it, usually via some sort of browser plugin.
Are you trying to test a referrer check? The easiest way to do it — no browser plug-in required — is to use a javascript: URL:
javascript:location="http://your.web.server/2.php"
Open http://www.google.com/ and paste that into the address bar. It will open 2.php, with the referrer being http://www.google.com/. The only problem I am aware of is that this does not work on Internet Explorer 6.
You can use PHP CURL to call the page and fake a referring URL, user agent, and other variables.