Turn off URL manipulation in AngularJS

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I'm trying to write my first web-app with Angular.

In the normal mode (html5Mode off), Angular forces the address's hash part to look like a "path" (adding a leading "/"), and encodes special characters - for example, it allows a single "?" and "#" in the hash and replaces the others with %3F and %23.

Is there a way to turn this feature off? I don't want to use the $locationProvider / $routeProvider features - I want to parse the hash myself (In my case, the user's will enter some "free text" in the hash to search inside my website).

I read that the routeProvider cannot be configured to use regular expressions...

If htmlMode is turned on, then the address's hash part is not forced to look like a path (no leading "/"), but it still encodes special characters.

I'm aware that some browsers might encode/escape the special characters anyway, but if the user managed to enter some special characters in its address bar then I don't want to change it.

Thanks

5

There are 5 answers

7
Grae Kindel On BEST ANSWER

Not sure of the side effects of this, but it gets the job done. Note that it will disable all location manipulation from the angular app, even if intended.

angular.module('sample', [])
    .config( ['$provide', function ($provide){
        $provide.decorator('$browser', ['$delegate', function ($delegate) {
            $delegate.onUrlChange = function () {};
            $delegate.url = function () { return ""};
            return $delegate;
        }]);
    }]);

ES6 variant:

angular.module('sample', [])
    .config(["$provide", $provide => {
        $provide.decorator("$browser", ["$delegate", $delegate => {
            $delegate.onUrlChange = () => { };
            $delegate.url = () => "";

            return $delegate;
        }]);
    }]);

Tested in Chrome 30, IE9, IE10.
Inspired by https://stackoverflow.com/a/16678065/369724

2
Adam On

If I recall correctly, Angular's routing is not obligatory, but then you must take care of reloading controllers, views, etc.

1
Yang Zhang On

I use a local copy of angular.js. Search for

$browser.onUrlChange(function(newUrl, newState) {

and

$rootScope.$watch(function $locationWatch() {

comment out the corresponding lines and angularjs will stop watch for location url changes.

0
DJ Jain On

The workaround from @greg.kindel (the accepted solution) didn't work for me. It threw lots of errors about an infinite digest loop. I'm using Angular 1.5.8.

I was able to adjust that workaround to the following to get things working. I hope it saves someone else grief.

angular.module('sample', [])
  .config(['$provide', function ($provide) {
    $provide.decorator('$browser', ['$delegate', '$window', function ($delegate, $window) {
      $delegate.onUrlChange = function () {};
      //
      // HACK to stop Angular routing from manipulating the URL
      //
      // The url() function seems to get used in two different modes.
      //
      // Mode 1 - Zero arguments
      // There are no arguments given, in which case it appears that the caller is expected the
      // browser's current URL (a string response).
      //
      // Mode 2 - Three arguments
      // It receives three arguments (url, some_boolean, null).  It seems the caller is expecting
      // the browser's URL to be updated to the given value.  The result of this function call is
      // expected to be the $delegate itself, which will subsequently get called with no arguments
      // to check the browser's URL.
      //
      // The Hack:
      // We save the URL so that we can lie to the caller that the URL has been updated to what was
      // requested, but in reality, we'll do nothing to alter the URL.
      //
      var savedUrl = null
      $delegate.url = function (url, ...args) {
        if (!!url) {
          savedUrl = url;
          return $delegate;
        } else {
          return !!savedUrl ? savedUrl : $window.location.href;
        }
      };
      return $delegate;
    }]);
  }])
2
Dragon On

Thank @greg.kindel 's answer, you help me find a solution to solve anchor problem. This code let AngularJS app IGNORE some hash pattern, keep it working like browser default. I don't need enable html5Mode, and ngRoute still working. :)

app.config(['$provide', function ($provide) {
    $provide.decorator('$browser', ['$delegate', '$window', function ($delegate, $window) {
        // normal anchors
        let ignoredPattern = /^#[a-zA-Z0-9].*/;
        let originalOnUrlChange = $delegate.onUrlChange;
        $delegate.onUrlChange = function (...args) {
            if (ignoredPattern.test($window.location.hash)) return;
            originalOnUrlChange.apply($delegate, args);
        };
        let originalUrl = $delegate.url;
        $delegate.url = function (...args) {
            if (ignoredPattern.test($window.location.hash)) return $window.location.href;
            return originalUrl.apply($delegate, args);
        };
        return $delegate;
    }]);
}]);

Tested in Chrome 69, Firefox 62

AngularJS 1.7.4