Turn off URL manipulation in AngularJS

Question

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

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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;
    }]);
  }])

Answer 5

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