Is document.referrer cross browser compatible?

Question

I'd like to use document.referrer for an informal referrer check. Is this element cross browser compatible? Will any browser throw an error when trying to reference the document object?

Solution 1

The document.referrer property is described in the DOM spec:

http://www.w3.org/TR/DOM-Level-2-HTML/html.html#ID-95229140

So it should be supported cross-browser. However, you can easily detect if the implementation does support this property like

if( 'referrer' in document ) { 
    console.log(document.referrer);
}

Solution 2

You can not depend on it to determine if the request is coming from a browser (many non-browser robots also send one). While it is supported by browsers their are also privacy programs to specifically not provide it. Sometimes this is done by a proxy server ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_referrer ... and If a website is accessed from a HTTP Secure (HTTPS) connection and a link points to a non-secure connection, then the referrer field is not sent.

So the answer is yes but with exceptions.

Comments

[jAndy]

even if this is true, I wouldn't rely on anything from the site w3schools.com.

[buley]

Here's a slightly more credible source confirming the same thing, so I think maybe w3schools.com is right on this one. code.google.com/p/doctype/wiki/DocumentReferrerProperty

[user194076]

Thanks guys. I never thought that w3schools provide inaccurate data.

[user227353]

just on the side, be careful when testing browser support using console.log as itself is not supported by all browsers.

[adambullmer]

I think you're referencing the server side $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERRER'] header value and not the javascript document.referrer

[TomFirth]

amusingly, to support your comments.. their example doesn't work when referred from this page.