PrePopulate a Node URL from Previous Node via Rules Link to Add Content Form Scenario

A Content Node's URL needs to be incorporated into an Application (Node Add) for a future reference so the users can view their Applications made. The user clicks on a Rules Link (i.e.'Contact User') button and the user is taken to a Form (which for my purposes creates a new content Node 'Application',so the entity is Prepopulated with the referring Node URL (or a linked Title) so the user can later view it in a list and for backend managment purposes, the Application Nodes will be CRON purged once in a while as required.

I have installed https://www.drupal.org/project/entityreference_prepopulate module along with Tokens but it doesn't included the previous Node URL as expected although it does add the 'current' mydomain.com URL, so it's working to some degree. And yes, I have looked at online Youtube etc videos, but they don't seem to cover my requirements.

I'm at a loss understanding how the process is working backend in Drupal. I'm not sure if in the Rules Link Component if I need to add the URL first then move to the Form page next (using Rules), or if that is completely an incorrect approach on my part and I need to use an API or whatever.

Any advice is very much appreciated. Thanks.
You need to have an entity reference field in your form and set it to reference nodes. 

Normally, you would then build your link with the current node's Nid to fill the entity reference field on the next page.

http://example.com/node/add/article?field_previous_page=123


However, because you are using rules link, I guess you have to create a redirect to the form based on the current node replacement pattern available.

Or below is a solution if that doesn't work out.


  If you really must use rules link and can't get normal methods to work, then Rules Session Variables
  would be an easy solution. It will give you actions to let you add the
  node's id into $_session.
  
  Then when you the user saves the form, have another rule that 
  checks if $_session exists and if so, take the Nid, fetch the node and then
  set the entity reference field with it.


So yeah, do you need to use rules link?