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document.referrer doesn't return page path

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  • 2 have this problem
  • 1002 views
  • Last reply by ArmandChoy

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I have a page that is loaded through apps.facebook.com

There are two paths that this page can be accessed from: apps.facebook.com/ProductionPage apps.facebook.com/DevelopmentPage (Not the actual urls, just used as an example)

I was using document.referrer to determine if the page was loaded through the Development path and if so load some debuging code. Now firefox was updated so document.referrer only returns the domain without the path. Is there any way or workarounds to get that path from the document.referrer?

Thanks, Armand Choy

I have a page that is loaded through apps.facebook.com There are two paths that this page can be accessed from: apps.facebook.com/ProductionPage apps.facebook.com/DevelopmentPage (Not the actual urls, just used as an example) I was using document.referrer to determine if the page was loaded through the Development path and if so load some debuging code. Now firefox was updated so document.referrer only returns the domain without the path. Is there any way or workarounds to get that path from the document.referrer? Thanks, Armand Choy

Chosen solution

The most obvious workaround seems to be to add a parameter to the URL you use to embed into the page, assuming FB allows that.

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All Replies (5)

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hi, maybe the following blog post can be of help?: https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2015/01/21/meta-referrer

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Wow, I didn't know about this change. FB is using:

<meta name="referrer" content="origin-when-crossorigin" id="meta_referrer" />

So yes, apps hosted on other hosts do not get the full URL under that policy:

http://www.w3.org/TR/referrer-policy/#referrer-policy-state-origin-when-cross-origin

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Chosen Solution

The most obvious workaround seems to be to add a parameter to the URL you use to embed into the page, assuming FB allows that.

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jscher2000 said

The most obvious workaround seems to be to add a parameter to the URL you use to embed into the page, assuming FB allows that.

While this doesn't solve the "problem" with document.referrer, I found out that facebook allows you to pass parameters to your page when you load apps.facebook.com.

Thanks for the replies!