How to get the URL of a Gmail or other webapp page in Chrome "application shortcut" mode?

In the google chrome web browser, if you want to copy the URL of the current page, in normal browser mode, you'd just copy the URL out of the address bar. But when your web app is running in the special "application shortcut" mode of google chrome, there is no address bar visible.

So how do you find out the URL for your current Gmail message, for instance?

(Ok, this is obviously a Chrome question, not a web app question, but give me points for the effort I put into disguising it...)

Steve Bennett

Posted 2010-11-18T23:03:11.063

Reputation: 1 458

Answers

The best way to do it is this little workaround:

Right click with your mouse inside the visble area of the web-page somehwhere. A context menu should appear, select "view page source".

Alternativeley just type ctrl-u.

A completely new browser tab will open and in the address bar of this new tab you can see the URL that you are looking for. Just omit the first part of it which says view-source: and copy the remainder to the clipboard for further processing. Don't forget to close that tab, it is no longer necessary.

Unfortunateley the "Copy URL" entry in the system menu has gone away in new versions of google chrome.

mit

Posted 2010-11-18T23:03:11.063

Reputation: 1 369

Thanks. That now seems like the best way. (And thanks for posting this as your own answer rather than editing mine - StackExchange takes a while to get used to.) – Steve Bennett – 2014-04-18T01:02:30.477

it is a bad habit, I know :) – mit – 2014-04-18T19:48:36.110

1Ctrl-U is a quick way to get "view source". Very annoying that there's not a better solution. – Herb Caudill – 2014-05-05T20:19:44.370

Ok, I found the right answer: Click the system menu (top left hand corner). Select "Copy URL".

Steve Bennett

Posted 2010-11-18T23:03:11.063

Reputation: 1 458

Too bad there isn't a keyboard shortcut for this. ): – Rebecca Chernoff – 2012-01-05T20:55:53.027

3I guess the shortcut is Alt + Space. Unfortunately, the "Copy URL" option had been removed (I'm on "Version 22.0.1229.94 m"). – Martin R-L – 2012-11-05T19:39:47.900

2Dammit, they have too. – Steve Bennett – 2012-11-06T00:31:41.110

Don't have access to Chrome right now, but how about Right-click on the page and select "Properties"?

ale

Posted 2010-11-18T23:03:11.063

Reputation: 3 159

1Ok, there's no "Properties", but I did just discover you can get it through Inspect Element. Navigate to the HTML element, and there's a rule matched for html, body. Right click on the source of that rule, and do "copy link address"...you get there in the end. Thanks. – None – 2010-11-20T05:18:59.283

@steve-bennett -- sneaky. You should repost comment as answer. – drzaus – 2013-08-08T09:59:41.983

@drzaus: He did

– ale – 2013-08-08T12:24:23.880

weird, how did I not see that? – drzaus – 2013-09-23T14:29:37.107