Pixel tracking with urlref needs url parameter?

Support & Bugs
1

Hello All,

using the image tracking, it seems that I need to provide the “url” parameter as soon as I add the urlref parameter.

Example: Using the default image tracking code:


<img src='http://myserver.com/piwik.php?idsite=1&rec=1' />

I get the URL information (page visited) although I didn’t add it explicitly to the image URL, but using


<img src='http://myserver.com/piwik.php?idsite=1&rec=1&urlref=http%3A%2F%2Ffoo.bar' />

tracks the referer, but not the URL (“Page URL not defined”). When I add urlref, both are logged.

Is this by intention? It makes things more complicated since I get the referrer rather simply with PHP but assembling the URL is somewhat more effort.

TIA,

Oliver

2

the relevant code is at: matomo/Request.php at master · matomo-org/matomo · GitHub

do you have suggestion of how to change it?

3

thanks for the direkt link to the relevant piece of code.

I expected $_SERVER[‘HTTP_REFERER’] to be used always if the url parameter is not passed, therefore depending only on “empty($this->params[‘url’])” but not on “empty($this->params[‘urlref’])”.

IOW I wonder why “empty($this->params[‘urlref’])” is used to decide whether to derive url from $_SERVER[‘HTTP_REFERER’].

I can’t imagine situations where the url parameter might not be passed and the URL is different from the referrer.

Of course my lack of imagination is no proof of nonexistence.

Oliver

4

why “empty($this->params[‘urlref’])” is used to decide whether to derive url from $_SERVER[‘HTTP_REFERER’].

$_SERVER[‘HTTP_REFERER’]. is used only when using Piwik as “default Image tracker” (where both urlref and url are not set, and we can at least set ‘url’).

5

yes, I know, that’s what I observed initially and what the code shows.

I just wrote what I expected as an unbiased user, and I still wonder why the page URL isn’t derived from $_SERVER[‘HTTP_REFERER’] if urlref is not empty - I don’t see the connection between url and urlref.

As I wrote initially, I can easily pass the referrer when I construct the piwik image url e.g. with php, and it would be nice it Piwik would guess the page URL if I don’t pass it.

But - as I wrote also - there might be reasons against it. IOW reasons for the code checking both url and urlref for “empty”. Maybe it is a good idea to put this reason in the existing comment in the code.

Oliver