SpringerLink Referral URL set up checks

The new default setting for most sites is strict-origin-when-cross-origin. If this is set then when users click through to SpringerLink we will only see the domain and not the full URL of the page you are coming from. If we have the full URL registered then we won’t grant access as the domain will not be enough to authenticate users.




Check Referrer Policy

  • Right click on the link itself that the user will be using to click through to our site - Inspect>Network>Headers

  

"Referrer Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin" highlighted within the Inspect>Network>Headers view.

(If no information can be seen then hit CTRL+R to generate results, which will then show you the Headers information. The result to click on, the website itself, is usually the result that is top of the list on the left)

If your referrer policy is strict-origin-when-cross-origin, please consider adjusting it to no-referrer-when-downgrade, as this will widen the scope of information sent through to us by your referring URL.

 

  • Right click on the link that will take the user to SpringerLink from your Conference site, and click on Inspect 
  • Then go to ‘Elements’  
  • Check the Anchor tag (highlighted in yellow in the screenshot below)  <a …>
  • Ensure that the link to our content is https://  The section of code in Inspect>Elements that shows the link out to SpringerLink content is highlighted.
  • Check that there isn’t ‘no referrer’ set  (as this would override the site’s Referrer Policy). If 'no referrer' is set, please adjust your settings so that it no longer appears.


Check document.referrer


You can check what referral information you are passing to us by clicking on the SpringerLink content URL that you have on your site. 


When you come through to SpringerLink from that link:

  • Right click on the page, and go to Inspect, and then Console 
  • Type in document.referrer after the > 


If you have ‘noreferrer’ set at the link level, or your site referrer policy is too strict, then the result will be blank, as ‘no referrer’ means that no referrer URL will be passed to us.

 

document.referrer

'' 

 

You would also see the blank document.referrer if you are coming from an https:// site and the link to SpringerLink has been added as http://,  or if your site is http:// and you are trying to link through to SpringerLink which is https://. Please ensure that both links are 'https'.

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