How to retrieve GET parameters from JavaScript

With the window.location object. This code gives you GET without the question mark.

window.location.search.substr(1)

From your example it will return returnurl=%2Fadmin

EDIT: I took the liberty of changing Qwerty's answer, which is really good, and as he pointed I followed exactly what the OP asked:

function findGetParameter(parameterName) {
    var result = null,
        tmp = [];
    location.search
        .substr(1)
        .split("&")
        .forEach(function (item) {
          tmp = item.split("=");
          if (tmp[0] === parameterName) result = decodeURIComponent(tmp[1]);
        });
    return result;
}

I removed the duplicated function execution from his code, replacing it a variable ( tmp ) and also I've added decodeURIComponent, exactly as OP asked. I'm not sure if this may or may not be a security issue.

Or otherwise with plain for loop, which will work even in IE8:

function findGetParameter(parameterName) {
    var result = null,
        tmp = [];
    var items = location.search.substr(1).split("&");
    for (var index = 0; index < items.length; index++) {
        tmp = items[index].split("=");
        if (tmp[0] === parameterName) result = decodeURIComponent(tmp[1]);
    }
    return result;
}

window.location.search will return everything from the ? on. This code below will remove the ?, use split to separate into key/value arrays, then assign named properties to the params object:

function getSearchParameters() {
    var prmstr = window.location.search.substr(1);
    return prmstr != null && prmstr != "" ? transformToAssocArray(prmstr) : {};
}

function transformToAssocArray( prmstr ) {
    var params = {};
    var prmarr = prmstr.split("&");
    for ( var i = 0; i < prmarr.length; i++) {
        var tmparr = prmarr[i].split("=");
        params[tmparr[0]] = tmparr[1];
    }
    return params;
}

var params = getSearchParameters();

You can then get the test parameter from http://myurl.com/?test=1 by calling params.test.