& symbol in address line is screwing up the script

Can anyone tell me how to fix this. I have this link click counting script that works great except if a link has an "&" symbol in it. If it does then it disregards the & and the rest of the url and writes only the part up until that point into the database. It also redirects to the shortened url afterwards.

What can I add to get around that?


<?php
require 'connect.php';

if(!empty($HTTP_GET_VARS['j']))
{

$b=mysql_select_db("news", $con);
$date = time();

$j=addslashes($HTTP_GET_VARS['j']);
$c=mysql_query("select id from click_counter where url='$j' order by id desc limit 1");
$d=mysql_fetch_object($c);
if(is_object($d))
{
mysql_query("update click_counter set hits=hits+1 where id={$d->id}");
}
else
{
mysql_query("insert into click_counter (url, date)values('$j',' $date')");
}
header("Location: $j");
}
else
{
header("Location: http://{$HTTP_SERVER_VARS['SERVER_NAME']}");
}
?>

try urlencode()

try urlencode()

No luck. It still stops at that &.

If you post an example of the link/data that does not work and also show what the results should be, it would help someone see what you are trying to accomplish.

If you post an example of the link/data that does not work and also show what the results should be, it would help someone see what you are trying to accomplish.

This is the link that I use. It works fine on any links I've used except for this one with the & symbol in it.

http://woopig.net/news/cc.php?j=http://www.hogwired.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6100&ATCLID=1064637

This is what gets written to my database as well as where I am directed to:

http://www.hogwired.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6100

Do a string replace, replacing instances of & with &amp;

Do a string replace, replacing instances of & with &amp;

Can that be automated or will I have to do it every time someone posts a link?

The encoded &amp; will be interpreted as & when received by the server and it will terminate the $_GET['j'] variable (I just tested it.) To use a $_GET variable, you would need to change the & into something else in the link and then change it back within your code (messy.)

You might want to look at the $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] variable and parse that to get what you want. For your example, this would give (tested) -
j=http://www.hogwired.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6100&ATCLID=1064637

The encoded &amp; will be interpreted as & when received by the server and it will terminate the $_GET['j'] variable (I just tested it.) To use a $_GET variable, you would need to change the & into something else in the link and then change it back within your code (messy.)

You might want to look at the $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] variable and parse that to get what you want. For your example, this would give (tested) -
j=http://www.hogwired.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=6100&ATCLID=1064637

I can't seem to make much since out of the $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] idea. I'm a novice and I got this code on a google search. I don't understand where to use it and/what to replace with it.

Diligence and determination finally paid off. I got it working with your suggestion and parsing it with substr.

$m=addslashes($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']);
$j=substr($m,2);