[whatwg] Calcuating Referer for window.open()

Adam Barth whatwg at adambarth.com
Tue May 26 23:52:41 PDT 2009


I've been investigating the following question:

Suppose frame A calls a function defined by frame B, which calls the
open() method of frame C.  What URL is sent in the Referer header?

My testing shows the following:

Internet Explorer 8: No Referer sent
Firefox 3: A's URL
Safari 3.2: A's URL
Google Chrome 2: A's URL
Opera 9.52: C's URL

My reading of the HTML 5 spec (which is somewhat confusing on this
point) seems to indicate that B's URL will be sent.  Although I agree
that B's URL is the "morally" right URL to send, it appears that
browsers favor A's URL.

Adam



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