referer-parser

Java/Scala:

referer-parser is a multi-language library for extracting marketing attribution data (such as search terms) from referer URLs, inspired by the ua-parser project (an equivalent library for user agent parsing).

referer-parser is a core component of Snowplow, the open-source web-scale analytics platform powered by Hadoop and Redshift.

Note that we always use the original HTTP misspelling of 'referer' (and thus 'referal') in this project - never 'referrer'.

Maintainers

Java/Scala: Snowplow Analytics Ltd
Ruby: Kelley Reynolds at Inside Systems, Inc
Python: Don Spaulding
node.js (JavaScript): Martin Katrenik
.NET (C#): Sepp Wijnands at iPerform Software
PHP: Lars Strojny
Go: Thomas Sileo
referers.yml: Snowplow Analytics

Usage: Java

The Java version of this library uses the updated API, and identifies search, social, webmail, internal and unknown referers:

import com.snowplowanalytics.refererparser.Parser;

...

String refererUrl = "http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari";
String pageUrl    = "http:/www.psychicbazaar.com/shop"; // Our current URL

Parser refererParser = new Parser();
Referer r = refererParser.parse(refererUrl, pageUrl);

System.out.println(r.medium);     // => "search"
System.out.println(r.source);     // => "Google"
System.out.println(r.term);       // => "gateway oracle cards denise linn"

For more information, please see the Java/Scala README.

Usage: Scala

The Scala version of this library uses the updated API, and identifies search, social, webmail, internal and unknown referers:

val refererUrl = "http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari"
val pageUrl    = "http:/www.psychicbazaar.com/shop" // Our current URL

import com.snowplowanalytics.refererparser.scala.Parser
for (r <- Parser.parse(refererUrl, pageUrl)) {
  println(r.medium)         // => "search"
  for (s <- r.source) {
    println(s)              // => "Google"
  }
  for (t <- r.term) {
    println(t)              // => "gateway oracle cards denise linn"
  }
}

You can also provide a list of domains which should be considered internal:

val refererUrl = "http://www.subdomain1.snowplowanalytics.com"
val pageUrl = "http://www.snowplowanalytics.com"
val internalDomains = List(
  "www.subdomain1.snowplowanalytics.com", "www.subdomain2.snowplowanalytics.com"
)

import com.snowplowanalytics.refererparser.scala.Parser

for (r <- Parser.parse(refererUrl, pageUrl, internalDomains)) {
  println(r.medium)         // => "internal"
  for (s <- r.source) {
    println(s)              // => null
  }
  for (t <- r.term) {
    println(t)              // => null
  }
}

For more information, please see the Java/Scala README.

Usage: Ruby

The Ruby version of this library uses the updated API:

require 'referer-parser'

parser = RefererParser::Parser.new

parser.parse('http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari')
  # => {
    :known=>true,
    :uri=>"http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari",
    :source=>"Google",
    :medium=>"search",
    :term=>"gateway oracle cards denise linn"
  }

For more information, please see the Ruby README.

Usage: Python

Create a new instance of a Referer object by passing in the url you want to parse:

from referer_parser import Referer

referer_url = 'http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari'

r = Referer(referer_url)

The r variable now holds a Referer instance. The important attributes are:

print(r.known)              # True
print(r.referer)            # 'Google'
print(r.medium)             # 'search'
print(r.search_parameter)   # 'q'     
print(r.search_term)        # 'gateway oracle cards denise linn'
print(r.uri)                # ParseResult(scheme='http', netloc='www.google.com', path='/search', params='', query='q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari', fragment='')

Optionally, pass in the current URL as well, to handle internal referers

from referer_parser import Referer

referer_url = 'http://www.snowplowanalytics.com/about/team'
curr_url = 'http://www.snowplowanalytics.com/account/profile'

r = Referer(referer_url, curr_url)

For more information, please see the Python README.

Usage: node.js

The node.js (JavaScript) version of this library uses a hybrid of the new and old API, and identifies search, social, webmail, internal and unknown referers:

Create a new instance of a Referer object by passing in the url you want to parse:

var Referer = require('referer-parser')

referer_url = 'http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari'

var r = new Referer(referer_url)

The r variable now holds a Referer instance.

Optionally, pass in the current URL as well, to handle internal referers

var Referer = require('referer-parser')

var referer_url = 'http://www.snowplowanalytics.com/about/team'
var current_url = 'http://www.snowplowanalytics.com/account/profile'

var r = Referer(referer_url, current_url)

For more information, please see the node.js README.

Usage: .NET

The .NET (C#) version of this library uses the updated API, and identifies search, social, webmail, internal and unknown referers:

using RefererParser;

...

string refererUrl = "http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari";
string pageUrl    = "http:/www.psychicbazaar.com/shop"; // Our current URL

var referer = Parser.Parse(new Uri(refererUrl), pageUrl);

Console.WriteLine(r.Medium); // => "Search"
Console.WriteLine(r.Source); // => "Google"
Console.WriteLine(r.Term); // => "gateway oracle cards denise linn"

For more information, please see the .NET README.

Usage: PHP

The PHP version of this library uses the updated API, and identifies search, social, webmail, internal and unknown referers:

use Snowplow\RefererParser\Parser;

$parser = new Parser();
$referer = $parser->parse(
    'http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari',
    'http:/www.psychicbazaar.com/shop'
);

if ($referer->isKnown()) {
    echo $referer->getMedium(); // "Search"
    echo $referer->getSource(); // "Google"
    echo $referer->getTerm();   // "gateway oracle cards denise linn"
}

For more information, please see the PHP README.

Usage: Go

The Go version of this library uses the updated API:

package main

import (
  "log"

  "github.com/tsileo/referer-parser/go"
)

func main() {
  referer_url := "http://www.google.com/search?q=gateway+oracle+cards+denise+linn&hl=en&client=safari"
  r := refererparser.Parse(referer_url)

  log.Printf("Known:%v", r.Known)
  log.Printf("Referer:%v", r.Referer)
  log.Printf("Medium:%v", r.Medium)
  log.Printf("Search parameter:%v", r.SearchParameter)
  log.Printf("Search term:%v", r.SearchTerm)
  log.Printf("Host:%v", r.URI)
}

For more information, please see the Go README

referers.yml

referer-parser identifies whether a URL is a known referer or not by checking it against the referers.yml file; the intention is that this YAML file is reusable as-is by every language-specific implementation of referer-parser.

The file is broken out into sections for the different mediums that we support:

unknown for when we know the source, but not the medium
email for webmail providers
social for social media services
search for search engines

Then within each section, we list each known provider (aka source) by name, and then which domains each provider uses. For search engines, we also list the parameters used in the search engine URL to identify the search term. For example:

Google: # Name of search engine referer
  parameters:
    - 'q' # First parameter used by Google
    - 'p' # Alternative parameter used by Google
  domains:
    - google.co.uk  # One domain used by Google
    - google.com    # Another domain used by Google
    - ...

The number of referers and the domains they use is constantly growing - we need to keep referers.yml up-to-date, and hope that the community will help!

Contributing

We welcome contributions to referer-parser:

New search engines and other referers - if you notice a search engine, social network or other site missing from referers.yml, please fork the repo, add the missing entry and submit a pull request
Ports of referer-parser to other languages - we welcome ports of referer-parser to new programming languages (e.g. Lua, Go, Haskell, C)
Bug fixes, feature requests etc - much appreciated!

Please sign the Snowplow CLA before making pull requests.