logging hyperlink clicks

[Rob Mostyn]

Thank you Caroline, thank you Doug and thank you Technical Support,

We will start working on this next week.  Thank you for the heads up on TinyUrl Doug.  I knew it provided smaller links but I didn’t know they get a count of them for you.  This would be the easiest way to implement a version of this but I have my own page reference tracking system and I would prefer to get these counts integrated with that.

The first task will be get the call made to Omnis to log the clicked link and issue a redirect for the user to see the desired page.

The next stage will be to have the option of doing this to/from a new tab or window.

I will let you all know how it goes when complete.

Cheers,
Rob

> On 3 Nov 2022, at 16:25, Doug Easterbrook via omnisdev-en <omnisdev-en at lists.omnis-dev.com> wrote:
> 
> hey Rob.
> 
> you are describing basically what tinyurl will do for you for a fee.  https://tinyurl.com/app/howit <https://tinyurl.com/app/howit>
> 
> effectively, you’ve be making something like tinyulr there the URL to the outside document is NOT actually the link to the outside document.    it is a link back to your web site that:
> 1) records the click
> 2) does a redirect to the page you want them to.
> 
> 
> 
> eg,  suppose you want. the URL to go to omnis.net <http://omnis.net/>
> 
> you make a URL to.  robmostyn.com/wyfwhlywe <http://robmostyn.com/wyfwhlywe>
> or robmostyn.com <http://robmostyn.com/>?doc=wyfwhlywe <http://robmostyn.com/wyfwhlywe>
> 
> 
> where wyfwhlywe <http://robmostyn.com/wyfwhlywe> is a path call on your server.
> or, in the second example, ‘doc' is a path that your server will respond to.
> 
> in either case (depending which you implement)
> 
> you now have the ability to track somebody clicked the link because the traffic first went through your server
> 
> and
> 
> you can issue a redirect to the right URL after you look it up.
> 
> 
> 
> you’d make a web page that has the redirect in it and issue a web response code of 301 or 302 instead of a response code of 200
> 
> 
> heres a web page that talks about a ‘redirect’ in a web page
> https://blog.hubspot.com/website/html-redirect <https://blog.hubspot.com/website/html-redirect>
> 
> 
> there are likely a number of more efficient ways to do it, but the gist of this is
> 
> 1) use a URL that goes back to your web site with a tag on it to tell you which web site you really want the user to go to
> 
> 2) when you get that hit, count the access to it
> 
> 3) make a web page that your return to the user that has a redirect in it to where you want it to really go to.
> 
> 4) and you may need to change the return code from a 200 to a 302
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Doug Easterbrook
> Arts Management Systems Ltd.
> mailto:doug at artsman.com
> http://www.artsman.com
> Phone (403) 650-1978
> 
>> On Nov 3, 2022, at 4:39 AM, Rob Mostyn <mostyn at platformis.net> wrote:
>> 
>> Dear $Listers,
>> 
>> This is a problem I’ve thought about before but never actually implemented.  Now I really want to implement it but I’m not sure how to do it.
>> 
>> It is an ultra thin application.
>> Omnis returns HTML to a browser to render.
>> On this page I want to present a number of links to external resources (other websites, documents on the web etc).
>> Ok… that is easy by providing hyperlinks on the web page to these other resources.
>> But I want to log what links gave been clicked.  Google does this on its search results.
>> 
>> LOGIC
>> Clicking on the link calls Omnis.
>> A parameter to the call denotes which link.
>> Omnis is invoked and the link can be logged.
>> But how do I return to the browser with “execute this hyperlink on a new tab/window”, leaving the previously despatched HTML as is?
>> Or I could return the previously generated HTML but how do I invoke the browser to follow the link?
>> 
>> Has anyone else tried to do this?  I know there is a way to tell  a browser to redirect but I don’t know how this works.
>> 
>> Help!
>> Rob Mostyn
>> 
>> +44 (0)20 3233 0044
>> 
>> As Carl Sagan once said:
>> One of the great commandments of science is, "Mistrust arguments from authority." ... Too many such arguments have proved too painfully wrong. Authorities must prove their contentions like everybody else.
>> 
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