Facebook share link without JavaScript

The following link is for sharing a page on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/share

Is there a similar option for Facebook that doesn't require JavaScript?

I know about http://facebook.com/sharer.php, but that requires a get parameter to be inserted manually (which I'm not going to do), or with JavaScript (which doesn't fit my situation).


Solution 1:

You could use

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=#url" target="_blank">
    Share
</a>

Currently there is no sharing option without passing current url as a parameter. You can use an indirect way to achieve this.

  1. Create a server side page for example: "/sharer.aspx"
  2. Link this page whenever you want the share functionality.
  3. In the "sharer.aspx" get the refering url, and redirect user to "https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u={referer}"

Example ASP .Net code:

public partial class Sharer : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        var referer = Request.UrlReferrer.ToString();

        if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(referer))
        {
            // some error logic
            return;
        }

        Response.Clear();
        Response.Redirect("https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(referer));
        Response.End();
    }
}

Solution 2:

Ps 2: As pointed out by Justin, check out Facebook's new Share Dialog. Will leave the answer as is for posterity. This answer is obsolete


Short answer, yes there's a similar option for Facebook, that doesn't require javascript (well, there's some minimal inline JS that is not compulsory, see note).

Ps: The onclick part only helps you customise the popup a little bit but is not required for the code to work ... it will work just fine without it.

Facebook

<a href="https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=URLENCODED_URL&t=TITLE"
   onclick="javascript:window.open(this.href, '', 'menubar=no,toolbar=no,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,height=300,width=600');return false;"
   target="_blank" title="Share on Facebook">
</a>

Twitter

<a href="https://twitter.com/share?url=URLENCODED_URL&via=TWITTER_HANDLE&text=TEXT"
   onclick="javascript:window.open(this.href, '', 'menubar=no,toolbar=no,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,height=300,width=600');return false;"
   target="_blank" title="Share on Twitter">
</a>

Solution 3:

It is possible to include JavaScript in your code and still support non-JavaScript users.

If a user clicks any of the following links without JavaScript enabled, it will simply open a new tab:

<!-- Remember to change URL_HERE, TITLE_HERE and TWITTER_HANDLE_HERE -->
<a href="http://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=URL_HERE&t=TITLE_HERE" target="_blank" class="share-popup">Share on Facebook</a>
<a href="http://www.twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=URL_HERE&via=TWITTER_HANDLE_HERE&text=TITLE_HERE" target="_blank" class="share-popup">Share on Twitter</a>
<a href="http://plus.google.com/share?url=URL_HERE" target="_blank" class="share-popup">Share on Googleplus</a>

Because they contain the share-popup class, we can easily reference these in jQuery, and change the window size to suit the domain we are sharing from:

$(".share-popup").click(function(){
    var window_size = "width=585,height=511";
    var url = this.href;
    var domain = url.split("/")[2];
    switch(domain) {
        case "www.facebook.com":
            window_size = "width=585,height=368";
            break;
        case "www.twitter.com":
            window_size = "width=585,height=261";
            break;
        case "plus.google.com":
            window_size = "width=517,height=511";
            break;
    }
    window.open(url, '', 'menubar=no,toolbar=no,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes,' + window_size);
    return false;
});

No more ugly inline JavaScript, or countless window sizing alterations. And it still supports non-JavaScript users.