How to get previous page URL using jQuery

Question

How to get previous page URL using jQuery?

I am using the following code to get the current page location

$(document).ready(function() {
var pathname = window.location.pathname;
});

score 107 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 26 '22 at 03:58

107

Easy as pie.

$(document).ready(function() {
   var referrer =  document.referrer;
});

It is not always available though.

edited Dec 26 '22 at 03:58

starball

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answered Mar 10 '10 at 09:13

Marcos Placona

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Note to Geetha: document.referrer is plain old JavaScript, so that might the reason that you can't find it browser the jQuery docs. – Jan Aagaard Mar 10 '10 at 09:18
It doesn't seem to work for me. How can I write the output in a input value? – curly_brackets Dec 23 '10 at 12:46
just bellow the var you could make it write this to a text field for example... document.getElementByID("myField").value=referrer; You could write it to a div as well. Many different ways – Marcos Placona Sep 29 '11 at 15:57
To put it in an input value using jQuery: $('#input-id').val(document.referrer); – Marshall Æon Jan 16 '12 at 00:49
1

I needed to implement my GoBack() js function then i tried this function GoBack() { history.go(-1) } but this has an issue when you deal with confirmation messages but document.location.href = document.referrer; worked as a pretty .... Many thanks Marcos : ))) – N0rA Feb 12 '14 at 15:25
This is ok and working fine but can we get only domain from referrer? @MarcosPlacona – Gobind Gupta Nov 02 '18 at 07:53
Hey @GobindGupta have a look at this answer https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10317017/javascript-get-domain-only-from-document-referrer – Marcos Placona Nov 23 '18 at 11:48
@MarcosPlacona, Thanks for efforts, i have also got the answer. – Gobind Gupta Nov 23 '18 at 18:15

score 9 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 20 '12 at 01:00

9

Do you mean something like history.go(-1);? It will go back to the previous page.

window.history on MDN

edited Dec 20 '12 at 01:00

kapa

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answered Mar 10 '10 at 09:15

Grumpy

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score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 31 '10 at 12:47

7

If you are using PHP, you can check previous url using php script rather than javascript. Here is the code:

echo $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];

Hope it helps even out of relevance :)

answered Mar 31 '10 at 12:47

Roel B

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I'm not sure what part of 'using jQuery' you missed with this. – sevenseacat Oct 26 '12 at 08:47
1

It's still helpful. – Isaac Lubow Oct 30 '19 at 17:26

score 5 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 10 '10 at 09:17

5

var from = document.referrer;
console.log(from);

document.referrer won't be always available.

answered Mar 10 '10 at 09:17

Amarghosh

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score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 31 '15 at 18:31

We have document.referrer for this, but it is not on which we can relay. This could be saved, could be not

$(document).ready(function() {
   var referrer =  document.referrer;
});

The better approach is to add a cookie to store the previous-url in the browser.

score 2 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 16 '18 at 13:50

2

simple & sweet

window.location = document.referrer;

edited Apr 16 '18 at 13:50

Moti Korets

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answered Apr 16 '18 at 12:41

Praveen Kumar Sharma

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 23 '20 at 09:14

0

Use can use one of below this

history.back();     // equivalent to clicking back button
history.go(-1);     // equivalent to history.back();

I am using as below for back button

<a class="btn btn-info float-right" onclick="history.back();" >Back</a>

answered Sep 23 '20 at 09:14

Jignesh Patel

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Sameera · Answer 8 · 2020-01-31T10:45:25.413

    $(document).ready(function() {
               var referrer =  document.referrer;

               if(referrer.equals("Setting.jsp")){                     
                   function goBack() {  
                        window.history.go();                            
                    }
               }  
                   if(referrer.equals("http://localhost:8080/Ads/Terms.jsp")){                     
                        window.history.forward();
                        function noBack() {
                        window.history.forward(); 
                    }
                   }
    });

using this you can avoid load previous page load

score -3 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 26 '12 at 08:45

-3

document.referrer is not working always.

You can use:

window.location.origin

answered Oct 26 '12 at 08:45

mspapant

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`window.location.origin` provides the root of the website NOT the referrer. e.g. `http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1420881/javascript-jquery-method-to-find-base-url-from-a-string` (which incidentally is my reference) becomes `http://stackoverflow.com` – dav_i Jan 25 '13 at 16:03

How to get previous page URL using jQuery

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