Hi,
I have a gallery installed on an ecommerce site purely as a secondary
feature. The thing is I don't want folk to be able to bookmark the gallery
for future visits and miss out on them visiting the ecommerce site (store).
Also I fear search engines may drive traffic to the gallery (which is no bad
thing) but they may not visit the store area. There are menu links to the
gallery on the store menu and to the store on the gallery menu.

What I want to achieve is:

a. Visitor visits www.example.com/gallery/ from OUTWITH the domain
(example.com), they are redirected to www.example.com/

b. Visitor already browsing www.example.com/* may have unrestricted
access to www.example.com/gallery/*

I'm sure from what I've seen this can be managed through .htaccess, but it's
way beyond my knowledge of htaccess.

Many thanks for any advice.

Neil

Neil wrote:
> Hi,
> I have a gallery installed on an ecommerce site purely as a secondary
> feature. The thing is I don't want folk to be able to bookmark the gallery
> for future visits and miss out on them visiting the ecommerce site (store).
> Also I fear search engines may drive traffic to the gallery (which is no bad
> thing) but they may not visit the store area. There are menu links to the
> gallery on the store menu and to the store on the gallery menu.
>
> What I want to achieve is:
>
> a. Visitor visits www.example.com/gallery/ from OUTWITH the domain
> (example.com), they are redirected to www.example.com/
>
> b. Visitor already browsing www.example.com/* may have unrestricted
> access to www.example.com/gallery/*
>
> I'm sure from what I've seen this can be managed through .htaccess, but it's
> way beyond my knowledge of htaccess.
>
> Many thanks for any advice.
>
> Neil
>
>
>
>

You can't do it in .htaccess. That would depend on the HTTP_REFERER
being present and accurate, which it is not.

More reliable would be to use cookies. Virtually any server-side
language can do it.

But I would recommend not doing it. If I saw a site do that, it would
be the last time I visited the site.

--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================

"Jerry Stuckle" <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote in message
news:gbl9m9$1j7$1@registered.motzarella.org...
> Neil wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I have a gallery installed on an ecommerce site purely as a secondary
>> feature. The thing is I don't want folk to be able to bookmark the
>> gallery for future visits and miss out on them visiting the ecommerce
>> site (store). Also I fear search engines may drive traffic to the gallery
>> (which is no bad thing) but they may not visit the store area. There are
>> menu links to the gallery on the store menu and to the store on the
>> gallery menu.
>>
>> What I want to achieve is:
>>
>> a. Visitor visits www.example.com/gallery/ from OUTWITH the domain
>> (example.com), they are redirected to www.example.com/
>>
>> b. Visitor already browsing www.example.com/* may have unrestricted
>> access to www.example.com/gallery/*
>>
>> I'm sure from what I've seen this can be managed through .htaccess, but
>> it's way beyond my knowledge of htaccess.
>>
>> Many thanks for any advice.
>>
>
> You can't do it in .htaccess. That would depend on the HTTP_REFERER being
> present and accurate, which it is not.

OK.
>
> More reliable would be to use cookies. Virtually any server-side language
> can do it.

I just thought there might be a straight forward method of doing it in
htaccess.
>
> But I would recommend not doing it. If I saw a site do that, it would be
> the last time I visited the site.

Personally I don't see anything wrong with it. This sort of thing happens
all the time in bricks and mortar shops/stores. Features of general and
incidental interest are located at the back of the store. Typically in gift
shops, I've even seen them in a different room to the back of the store -
very often displaying local artwork - to encourage the customer/browser to
come in and walk through the store to get to it. In this case it would only
be necessary for the visitor to visit a single page within the store, to be
able to click on the gallery button.

Perhaps it's something for me to ponder - thanks for the advice.

Neil

"Neil" <service@neilr.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> I have a gallery installed on an ecommerce site purely as a secondary
> feature. The thing is I don't want folk to be able to bookmark the
> gallery for future visits and miss out on them visiting the ecommerce
> site (store). Also I fear search engines may drive traffic to the
> gallery (which is no bad thing) but they may not visit the store area.
> There are menu links to the gallery on the store menu and to the
> store on the gallery menu.
>
> What I want to achieve is:
>
> a. Visitor visits www.example.com/gallery/ from OUTWITH the domain
> (example.com), they are redirected to www.example.com/

Then you ---- off quite some visitors. I've read your reply to Jerry, and
imagine, you walk into a shop, and someone walks towards you, and kicks
you away from the section you where going to, and puts you in a different
section... On the web it's even worse, because after you've redirected the
visitor, how can he/she get back to that page she landed on (via search
engine, an external link, etc.)

>
> b. Visitor already browsing www.example.com/* may have unrestricted
> access to www.example.com/gallery/*
>
> I'm sure from what I've seen this can be managed through .htaccess,
> but it's way beyond my knowledge of htaccess.

It can be done, but you probably lose visitors by doing so. Make your
gallery in such a way that the visitor is *tempted* to go to the ecommerce
part.


--
John Bokma http://johnbokma.com/

AISE/AWW/SEO/web development forum: http://seo-expert-wiki.com/

Neil wrote:
> "Jerry Stuckle" <jstucklex@attglobal.net> wrote in message
> news:gbl9m9$1j7$1@registered.motzarella.org...
>> Neil wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> I have a gallery installed on an ecommerce site purely as a secondary
>>> feature. The thing is I don't want folk to be able to bookmark the
>>> gallery for future visits and miss out on them visiting the ecommerce
>>> site (store). Also I fear search engines may drive traffic to the gallery
>>> (which is no bad thing) but they may not visit the store area. There are
>>> menu links to the gallery on the store menu and to the store on the
>>> gallery menu.
>>>
>>> What I want to achieve is:
>>>
>>> a. Visitor visits www.example.com/gallery/ from OUTWITH the domain
>>> (example.com), they are redirected to www.example.com/
>>>
>>> b. Visitor already browsing www.example.com/* may have unrestricted
>>> access to www.example.com/gallery/*
>>>
>>> I'm sure from what I've seen this can be managed through .htaccess, but
>>> it's way beyond my knowledge of htaccess.
>>>
>>> Many thanks for any advice.
>>>
>> You can't do it in .htaccess. That would depend on the HTTP_REFERER being
>> present and accurate, which it is not.
>
> OK.
>> More reliable would be to use cookies. Virtually any server-side language
>> can do it.
>
> I just thought there might be a straight forward method of doing it in
> htaccess.
>> But I would recommend not doing it. If I saw a site do that, it would be
>> the last time I visited the site.
>
> Personally I don't see anything wrong with it. This sort of thing happens
> all the time in bricks and mortar shops/stores. Features of general and
> incidental interest are located at the back of the store. Typically in gift
> shops, I've even seen them in a different room to the back of the store -
> very often displaying local artwork - to encourage the customer/browser to
> come in and walk through the store to get to it. In this case it would only
> be necessary for the visitor to visit a single page within the store, to be
> able to click on the gallery button.
>

This is not a brick and mortar shop. This is an internet. And if I
want to bookmark a page, it's because I want to bookmark THAT PAGE.
Force me to run through hoops to get to the page I bookmarked and I will
never be back.


> Perhaps it's something for me to ponder - thanks for the advice.
>
> Neil
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
==================
Remove the "x" from my email address
Jerry Stuckle
JDS Computer Training Corp.
jstucklex@attglobal.net
==================

"Neil" <service@neilr.com> wrote ...
>> But I would recommend not doing it. If I saw a site do that, it would be
>> the last time I visited the site.
> Personally I don't see anything wrong with it. This sort of thing happens
> all the time in bricks and mortar shops/stores. Features of general and
> incidental interest are located at the back of the store. Typically in
> gift shops, I've even seen them in a different room to the back of the
> store -

Where you put things is not really the issue; the issue is that people are
bookmarking one page, and being sent somewhere different.

That's like setting the Star Trek transporter to 'Gallery', saying "Beam me
up, Scotty", and arriving in front of store.

It's both disorienting and dishonest - neither severe - but severe enough to
break trust. And if you want Internet sales, trust is all.

Let people go where they want to go, and use imaginative and beguiling
signposting to make sure they want to go where you want tem to go!
--

Andrew
seo2seo.com
sick-site-syndrome.com

UK Residents:
STOP THE "10p Tax Ripoff"
Sign the petition to stop the government stealing from the
very poorest tell your friends about this petition:
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/10penceband/

"John Bokma" <john@castleamber.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9B2658B03E052castleamber@130.133.1.4...
> "Neil" <service@neilr.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>> I have a gallery installed on an ecommerce site purely as a secondary
>> feature. The thing is I don't want folk to be able to bookmark the
>> gallery for future visits and miss out on them visiting the ecommerce
>> site (store). Also I fear search engines may drive traffic to the
>> gallery (which is no bad thing) but they may not visit the store area.
>> There are menu links to the gallery on the store menu and to the
>> store on the gallery menu.
>>
>> What I want to achieve is:
>>
>> a. Visitor visits www.example.com/gallery/ from OUTWITH the domain
>> (example.com), they are redirected to www.example.com/
>
> Then you ---- off quite some visitors. I've read your reply to Jerry, and
> imagine, you walk into a shop, and someone walks towards you, and kicks
> you away from the section you where going to, and puts you in a different
> section... On the web it's even worse, because after you've redirected the
> visitor, how can he/she get back to that page she landed on (via search
> engine, an external link, etc.)

Ok - John / Jerry, I take your point(s). I really didn't consider it that
way. So it's a non starter then.

Many thanks for the replies.
Neil

Neil wrote:

> folkÂ-toÂ-beÂ-ableÂ-toÂ-bookmarkÂ-theÂ-gallery
> for future visits and miss out on them visiting the ecommerce site
> (store). Also I fear search engines may drive traffic to the gallery
> (which is no bad thing) but they may not visit the store area.Â-Â-There
> areÂ-menuÂ-linksÂ-toÂ-the gallery on the store menu and to the store on
> the gallery menu.

You can do this, but you would be far better off doing these
conditionals/checks in the script itself. Use some session based
method so they'd have to come from a specific page (not just a referer,
but actually hit a page, a session is created and then they can surf
the store. Otherwise, shoot them to the page that creates the session,
since they are a new visitor, and then the next step/link goes to the
store). While you can do a lot with rules in .htaccess, using rewrite,
etc., this is something you need to do in the scripts for the store.
--
Tim Greer, CEO/Founder/CTO, BurlyHost.com, Inc.
Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Dedicated & Semi-Dedicated servers
and Custom Hosting. 24/7 support, 30 day guarantee, secure servers.
Industry's most experienced staff! -- Web Hosting With Muscle!

Neil wrote:

>
> "John Bokma" <john@castleamber.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns9B2658B03E052castleamber@130.133.1.4...
>> "Neil" <service@neilr.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>> I have a gallery installed on an ecommerce site purely as a
>>> secondary
>>> feature. The thing is I don't want folk to be able to bookmark the
>>> gallery for future visits and miss out on them visiting the
>>> ecommerce site (store). Also I fear search engines may drive traffic
>>> to the gallery (which is no bad thing) but they may not visit the
>>> store area.
>>> There are menu links to the gallery on the store menu and to the
>>> store on the gallery menu.
>>>
>>> What I want to achieve is:
>>>
>>> a. Visitor visits www.example.com/gallery/ from OUTWITH the
>>> domain (example.com), they are redirected to www.example.com/
>>
>> Then you ---- off quite some visitors. I've read your reply to Jerry,
>> and imagine, you walk into a shop, and someone walks towards you, and
>> kicks you away from the section you where going to, and puts you in a
>> different section... On the web it's even worse, because after you've
>> redirected the visitor, how can he/she get back to that page she
>> landed on (via search engine, an external link, etc.)
>
> Ok - John / Jerry, I take your point(s). I really didn't consider it
> that way. So it's a non starter then.
>
> Many thanks for the replies.
> Neil

I had mistakenly believed in my last reply to your original post, that
you had a store that you didn't want people to hit the wrong page or
start using without first going through a proper store front page. If
it's for another reason, then yeah, you might want to consider how
it'll look to visitors. I.e., if they hit a page for a gallery and are
redirected to the main page, it's not just about annoying them, it's
that they'll likely think the page no longer exists and not continue on
your site, since the content they came to see looks like it's not
there.
--
Tim Greer, CEO/Founder/CTO, BurlyHost.com, Inc.
Shared Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Dedicated & Semi-Dedicated servers
and Custom Hosting. 24/7 support, 30 day guarantee, secure servers.
Industry's most experienced staff! -- Web Hosting With Muscle!

Neil wrote:

>Personally I don't see anything wrong with it. This sort of thing happens
>all the time in bricks and mortar shops/stores. Features of general and
>incidental interest are located at the back of the store. Typically in gift
>shops, I've even seen them in a different room to the back of the store -
>very often displaying local artwork - to encourage the customer/browser to
>come in and walk through the store to get to it.

To do the same thing as the brick and mortar shops do (make other
items available to either buy or ignore as you walk by), you would
put an ad linking to the store on the gallery page. What you are
proposing is more like putting in a trap door that drops anyone
who reaches the artwork into a store in the basement. The fact
that there are stairs back up to the main floor and a mechanism
that (you hope) avoids dropping them again and again does not
change the basic rudeness of what you want to do.

BTW, "Personally I don't see anything wrong with it." is something
I hear a lot from someone who thinks that their sales are the most
important thing in the world.


--
Guy Macon
<http://www.GuyMacon.com/>