#362 HTTP_REFERER should include query string - Webrat

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#362 new

HTTP_REFERER should include query string

Reported by jarrett (at uchicago) | March 2nd, 2010 @ 04:06 PM

Webrat ignores the query string when setting the referrer header. In my experience, browsers include the query string, which seems consistent with the concept of URI opacity. The practical implication, for me at least, is that I cannot test a section of my app that takes into account the query string in the referrer header.

This can be fixed by modifying webrat/core/session.rb, line 114 (#request_page).

The original:

h['HTTP_REFERER'] = @current_url if @current_url

My version:

if @current_url
  if @data and !@data.empty?
    h['HTTP_REFERER'] = @current_url + '?' + @data.inject([]) { |pairs, (key, val)|
      pairs << "#{key}=#{val}"
    }.join('&')
  else
    h['HTTP_REFERER'] = @current_url
  end
end

For the sake of URI opacity, it would be even better if we didn't have to reconstruct the URI from @current_url and @data, but rather used the original URI string as-is. I don't know if this is possible or practical.

Speaking of opacity, my code still leaves out the scheme and host. The browsers I've tested include those. So it might be a good idea to add them as well.

Comments and changes to this ticket

jarrett (at uchicago) March 2nd, 2010 @ 04:24 PM

For anyone who's having the same problem, here's my workaround. Despite the code above, I actually prefer not to patch my gem source, because my changes will be lost on the next upgrade. So, here's a hotfix that you can use in your test suite. It basically does the same thing, just in a different place:

module Webrat
  class Session
    # https://webrat.lighthouseapp.com/projects/10503/tickets/362-http_referer-should-include-query-string#ticket-362-1

    def process_request_with_query_string_in_referrer(http_method, url, data, headers)
      if @current_url
        if @data and !@data.empty?
          headers['HTTP_REFERER'] = @current_url + '?' + @data.inject([]) { |pairs, (key, val)|
            pairs << "#{key}=#{val}"
          }.join('&')
        else
          headers['HTTP_REFERER'] = @current_url
        end
      end
      process_request_without_query_string_in_referrer(http_method, url, data, headers)
    end

    alias_method :process_request_without_query_string_in_referrer, :process_request
    alias_method :process_request, :process_request_with_query_string_in_referrer
  end
end

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