How do I get the current absolute URL in Ruby on Rails?

Question

How can I get the current absolute URL in my Ruby on Rails view?

The request.request_uri only returns the relative URL.

Washtub

You can have a look for rails 4: blog.grepruby.com/2015/04/absolute-url-full-url-in-rails-4.html – Potence

Answer 1

For Rails 3.2 or Rails 4+

You should use request.original_url to get the current URL. Source code on current repo found here.

This method is documented at original_url method, but if you're curious, the implementation is:

def original_url
  base_url + original_fullpath
end

---

For Rails 3:

You can write "#{request.protocol}#{request.host_with_port}#{request.fullpath}", since request.url is now deprecated.

---

For Rails 2:

You can write request.url instead of request.request_uri. This combines the protocol (usually http://) with the host, and request_uri to give you the full address.

Floe

as other users pointed: DEPRECATION WARNING: Using #request_uri is deprecated. Use fullpath instead – Claqueur

@Claqueur fullpath does NOT include the protocol/domain/port! It’s not an absolute URL! – Halfandhalf

"http://#{request.host+request.fullpath}" will work or otherwise, (if the port is important) "http://#{request.host}:#{request.port+request.fullpath}" – Steradian

if port important, this one works right: "http://#{request.host}:#{request.port}#{request.fullpath}" – Harmattan

You can also use request.host_with_port to make something compatible with both production and dev envs. – Senescent

Its clear that the request.* api has changed a lot between rails versions and may continue to change. However, the api for url_for has remained mostly constant. I would use url_for for that reason. I woud say that @grzuy's answer is the best one. – Mancini

Can you point to a reference for the claim that request.url is deprecated? The proposed solution is just a long way of saying what request.url already does; the implementation is simply protocol + host_with_port + fullpath (github.com/rails/rails/blob/…) – Impeccant

This answer is outdated! See @Mike's answer for a smarter solution (i.e. use request.original_url). – Wyoming

how do you use this with link_to request.original_url and add an extra parameter? somehow with params.merge maybe? – Unreel

What if there is no request because I am not in controller but in a worker thread? – Primo

Answer 2

I think that the Ruby on Rails 3.0 method is now request.fullpath.

Isobel

fullpath doesn't include the domain – Prefrontal

I'm glad this was provided as I was actually searching for how to not include the domain. – Contrary

Answer 3

You could use url_for(only_path: false)

Ster

In my (a bit special case) this was almost exactly what I wanted. I just changed the option to true and got the url for the current page, without options. Thanks :) – Tipperary

@David not in the View it doesn't. But it should'n be used there anyway =) – Dibasic

In my case I wanted to change host name but keep everything else. I found that url_for(host: 'www.newdomain.com') worked the best for me as a solution to the problem. IMO, its a more robust solution since its the same across all versions of rails. – Mancini

FYI This will not work if you have multiple paths for the same resource. – Pernambuco

For a /activities/:id path I got 404?id=:id when doing url_for(only_path: false) from a page handling "not found", request.original_url works fine – Nahama

Answer 4

If you're using Rails 3.2 or Rails 4, you should use request.original_url to get the current URL.

---

Documentation for the method is at http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionDispatch/Request.html#method-i-original_url, but if you're curious, the implementation is:

def original_url
  base_url + original_fullpath
end

EDIT: This is still the case for Rails 7 (Docs).

Maragaret

Answer 5

DEPRECATION WARNING: Using #request_uri is deprecated. Use fullpath instead.

Albania

See notes on answer https://mcmap.net/q/45631/-how-do-i-get-the-current-absolute-url-in-ruby-on-rails, fullpath doesn't include the domain. – Steradian

this line came straight from the log at time of writing when using request.uri and this has already been pointed out several times in this question, but... ok, thanks – Albania

@ManishShrivastava: funny, in spite of all the "original" effort I put answering more complex questions, this copy and paste gave me the highest score, well... better than nothing – Albania

Answer 6

You can add this current_url method in the ApplicationController to return the current URL and allow merging in other parameters

# https://x.com/y/1?page=1 
# + current_url( :page => 3 )
# = https://x.com/y/1?page=3
def current_url(overwrite={})
    url_for :only_path => false, :params => params.merge(overwrite)
end

Example Usage:

current_url --> http://...
current_url(:page=>4) --> http://...&page=4

Tiptop

This does not appear to be defined in Rails 3.1. – Halfandhalf

you could do it this way url_for params.merge(:format => "PDF", :only_path => false) – Scatter

also if you are in a link_to you can just use params.merge and skip the url_for altogether – Scatter

Answer 7

For Ruby on Rails 3:

request.url
request.host_with_port

I fired up a debugger session and queried the request object:

request.public_methods

Ledda

Answer 8

In Ruby on Rails 3.1.0.rc4:

 request.fullpath

Reduced

fullpath does not provide an absolute URL as the original poster requested. – Rimarimas

Answer 9

I needed the application URL but with the subdirectory. I used:

root_url(:only_path => false)

Nahama

Answer 10

 url_for(params)

And you can easily add some new parameter:

url_for(params.merge(:tag => "lol"))

Uganda

This is far more elegant (if less granular) than the approved answer. – Rimarimas

Answer 11

I think request.domain would work, but what if you're in a sub directory like blah.blah.com? Something like this could work:

<%= request.env["HTTP_HOST"] + page = "/" + request.path_parameters['controller'] + "/" + request.path_parameters['action'] %>

Change the parameters based on your path structure.

Hope that helps!

Torrential

Yes Jaime's answer is way better, but if you want to be really inefficient, you could do it my way. – Torrential

Answer 12

It looks like request_uri is deprecated in Ruby on Rails 3.

Using #request_uri is deprecated. Use fullpath instead.

Alarm

Answer 13

Using Ruby 1.9.3-p194 and Ruby on Rails 3.2.6:

If request.fullpath doesn't work for you, try request.env["HTTP_REFERER"]

Here's my story below.

I got similar problem with detecting current URL (which is shown in address bar for user in her browser) for cumulative pages which combines information from different controllers, for example, http://localhost:3002/users/1/history/issues.

The user can switch to different lists of types of issues. All those lists are loaded via Ajax from different controllers/partials (without reloading).

The problem was to set the correct path for the back button in each item of the list so the back button could work correctly both in its own page and in the cumulative page history.

In case I use request.fullpath, it returns the path of last JavaScript request which is definitely not the URL I'm looking for.

So I used request.env["HTTP_REFERER"] which stores the URL of the last reloaded request.

Here's an excerpt from the partial to make a decision

- if request.env["HTTP_REFERER"].to_s.scan("history").length > 0
  - back_url = user_history_issue_path(@user, list: "needed_type")
- else
  - back_url = user_needed_type_issue_path(@user)
- remote ||= false
=link_to t("static.back"), back_url, :remote => remote

Dereliction

Yup, fullpath gets you the url you requested, not the url you came from, which is what I needed as well. Thanks for this! – Rodenhouse

Works great, just what I needed. This should be in a seperate question and answer though. Kinda hard to find here. :/ – Reitman

Answer 14

This works for Ruby on Rails 3.0 and should be supported by most versions of Ruby on Rails:

request.env['REQUEST_URI']

Skillet

Answer 15

None of the suggestions here in the thread helped me sadly, except the one where someone said he used the debugger to find what he looked for.

I've created some custom error pages instead of the standard 404 and 500, but request.url ended in /404 instead of the expected /non-existing-mumbo-jumbo.

What I needed to use was

request.original_url

Presidium

Answer 16

If by relative, you mean just without the domain, then look into request.domain.

Gabble

Answer 17

You can use the ruby method:

:root_url

which will get the full path with base url:

localhost:3000/bla

Cotinga

This is the only solution that works in serializers using active_model_serializers in Rails 4. – Obscenity

Can you please tell me how can I restrict the params I pass to an absolute url when I use somethin like :root_url to get the absolute url ? Assume I'm usin somethin like some_method(:products_brand_url, brand: brand, entity_name: "brand") and some_method is defined as ` def some_method(route, opts = {}) end ` I don't want my route to look like - http://localhost:3000/brands/brand_name?&entity_name="brand". I want the route to look like http://localhost:3000/brands/brand_name. I just want the entity_name to be a part of the opts hash and not as a params to the absolute url. – Preschool

Certainly there's no Ruby method called root_url. – Plafond

Answer 18

(url_for(:only_path => false) == "/" )? root_url : url_for(:only_path => false)

Cardinalate

Answer 19

In Rails 3 you can use

request.original_url

http://apidock.com/rails/v3.2.8/ActionDispatch/Request/original_url

Omni

Answer 20

you can use any one for rails 3.2:

request.original_url
or
request.env["HTTP_REFERER"]
or
request.env['REQUEST_URI']

I think it will work every where

"#{request.protocol}#{request.host}:#{request.port}#{request.fullpath}"

Feria

Answer 21

Rails 4.0

you can use request.original_url, output will be as given below example

get "/articles?page=2"

request.original_url # => "http://www.example.com/articles?page=2"

Vexillum

Answer 22

You can either use

request.original_url 

or

"#{request.protocol}#{request.host_with_port}" 

to get the current URL.

Dusk

Answer 23

For Rails 3.2 or Rails 4 Simply get in this way "request.original_url" Reference: Original URL Method

For Rails 3 As request.url is deprecated.We can get absolute path by concatenating

"#{request.protocol}#{request.host_with_port}#{request.fullpath}"

For Rails 2

request.url

Wortham

Answer 24

if you want to be specific, meaning, you know the path you need:

link_to current_path(@resource, :only_path => false), current_path(@resource)

Thematic

Answer 25

For rails 3 :

request.fullpath

Liam

Answer 26

request.env["REQUEST_URI"]

works in rails 2.3.4 tested and do not know about other versions.

Keble

Answer 27

To get the request URL without any query parameters.

def current_url_without_parameters
  request.base_url + request.path
end

Nil

Answer 28

You can set a variable to URI.parse(current_url), I don't see this proposal here yet and it works for me.

Telethermometer

Answer 29

You can use:

request.full_path

or

request.url

Hopefully it will resolve your problem.

Cheers

Mariahmariam

Answer 30

For Rails 3.x and up:

#{request.protocol}#{request.host_with_port}#{request.fullpath}

For Rails 3.2 and up:

request.original_url

Because in rails 3.2 and up:

request.original_url = request.base_url + request.original_fullpath

For more info, plese visit http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionDispatch/Request.html#method-i-original_url

Kerrikerrie

Answer 31

To get the absolute URL which means that the from the root it can be displayed like this

<%= link_to 'Edit', edit_user_url(user) %>

The users_url helper generates a URL that includes the protocol and host name. The users_path helper generates only the path portion.

users_url: http://localhost/users
users_path: /users

Knp

Answer 32

Rails 4

Controller:

def absolute_url
  request.base_url + request.original_fullpath
end

Action Mailer Notable changes in 4.2 release:

link_to and url_for generate absolute URLs by default in templates, it is no longer needed to pass only_path: false. (Commit)

View:

If you use the _url suffix, the generated URL is absolute. Use _path to get a relative URL.

<%= link_to "Home", root_url %>

For More Details, go to:

http://blog.grepruby.com/2015/04/absolute-url-full-url-in-rails-4.html

Potence

A custom method is not needed. The correct answer is above. – Homologous

Answer 33

you can get absolute url by calling:

request.original_url

or

request.env['HTTP_REFERER']

Barring