Why is base domain appended to links?

[donb01]

I am having a problem that's really getting on my nerves and I think apache is doing it. I have looked at the index.html file and the extra crap is not in there. It happens in both IE and Firefox which rules out me accidentally changing a browser setting, so I'm stumped (and annoyed).

I've done this a million times. I use Netobjects Fusion to do my web design. I create an empty text box, click on the HTML tab, and put in whatever HTML I want to appear - whether that be links to tracking sites or whatever code that references external stuff - like a YouTube video or whatever. It gets published and shows up.

The last couple of things I've done have had issues with the base site URL being prepended to the external reference.

For example, the website I'm working on is

http://www.cccshows.org,

and on the main page (which has been reverted) I want to display a flash animation thingy from another site. Lets assume that everything site and browserwise supports what I want to do - I have all the plugins, etc.

My main page shows up with a cute little box on it with an X or something in it, and when I hover the cursor over the box (which is supposed to embed content from an external site) the data shown on the status bar is:

http://www.cccshows.org/

http://someotherplace.com/withcontent/andstuffhere

This of course is an invalid reference, and the browser doesn't know what to do with it so it ignores it.

What is making the extra

http://www.cccshows.org

get prepended onto the source link - EVEN THOUGH that data is not present in the index.html file??

The data I'm embedding in the site is real basic. I know it is valid because I pasted it into notepad, named it crap.html and opened it in firefox with no problem.

 

[RhythmAce]

I don't think apache would know how to do something like that even if you wanted it to. You would have to use html or something. That brings us to the real culprit, (pause for effect) Netobjects Fusion. For some reason it thinks you want an internal link rather than external. Somewhere in your code you will see a reference to the base url. It more than likely stores your url in a variable then appends it to the base url variable. I've never used Netobjects Fusion so I can't offer any more detail but you may try their website for support or try the html forum here at tek-tips.

 

[donb01]

I won't keep this going in here if that's the case, but I've been through that index.html file with a fine tooth comb and I can't find anything hokey with it.... I'll go sniffing around somewhere else....

(laughing about a TV commercial for FedEx...) The other thing I thought of in the shower this morning is that because I'm embedding code that pulls data from another website maybe it thinks there is some kind of cross-site scripting thing going on and either the browser or apache is blocking it by forcing a reference back to the initiating site.... I don't know enough about what that is all about so I need to look that up too...

 

[stfaprc]

is the prepended part actually on a seperate line from the real link text?
Have you done a 'View Source' from within the browsers?

 

[donb01]

No, it's on the same line - the base part of my domain -

http://www.cccshows.org/

then a space, and then the actual "source" URL of the flash content. Yes I have done view source, and the source displayed in the browser does not show the extra junk.

Here is what I have found so far, and unless Apache has a similar directive built in now I would have to assume this is not an Apache issue.

The flash player has an "AllowScriptAccess" directive that is intended to be a scripting permission control. the default is "SameDomain" which means the player can only run scripts on the same domain as the content came from. The other options are "Always" (no restrictions) and "Never" (no execution at all). The parameter for the content was set to "SameDomain" and I have changed it to always but the browser or player seems to be ignoring the directive and nothing changes. I believe this directive is what is causing the forced insertion of my base domain before the content in an attempt to prevent a cross-site scripting vulnerability.

I googled "AllowScriptAccess" and found a bunch of stuff on the Adobe site about it.

I have a test page out there that is disconnected from my main site and just floating out there. The actual "embed" command to play the video is down on the bottom 10% of the page, just before all the menu button stuff. You will see a reference to picturetrail.com and flash stuff. The page looks like crap because the invisible content is messing it up - I'm more worried about the content becoming visible - the rest I can fix later.

http://www.cccshows.org/html/testpage.html

I need to go search for the right forum to post this in - something about flash or shockwave programming or use or something.....