Is there a way to update the URL programatically without reloading the page?
EDIT: I added something in the title in post .I just want to make it clear that I don't want to reload the page
Yes and no. All the common web browsers has a security measure to prevent that. The goal is to prevent people from creating replicas of websites, change the URL to make it look correct, and then be able to trick people and get their info.
However, some HTML5 compatible web browsers has implemented an History API that can be used for something similar to what you want:
if (history.pushState) {
var newurl = window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host + window.location.pathname + '?myNewUrlQuery=1';
window.history.pushState({path:newurl},'',newurl);
}
I tested, and it worked fine. It does not reload the page, but it only allows you to change the URL query. You would not be able to change the protocol or the host values.
For more information:
http://diveintohtml5.info/history.html
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Manipulating_the_browser_history
Yes - document.location = "http://my.new.url.com"
You can also retrieve it the same way eg.
var myURL = document.location;
document.location = myURL + "?a=parameter";
The location object has a number of useful properties too:
hash Returns the anchor portion of a URL
host Returns the hostname and port of a URL
hostname Returns the hostname of a URL
href Returns the entire URL
pathname Returns the path name of a URL
port Returns the port number the server uses for a URL
protocol Returns the protocol of a URL
search Returns the query portion of a URL
EDIT:
Setting the hash of the document.location shouldn't reload the page, just alter where on the page the focus is. So updating to #myId will scroll to the element with id="myId". If the id doesn't exist I believe nothing will happen? (Need to confirm on various browsers though)
EDIT2: To make it clear, not just in a comment:
You can't update the whole URL with javascript without changing the page, this is a security restriction. Otherwise you could click on a link to a random page, crafted to look like gmail, and instantly change the URL to www.gmail.com and steal people's login details.
You can change the part after the domain on some browsers to cope with AJAX style things, but that's already been linked to by Osiris. What's more, you probably shouldn't do this, even if you could. The URL tells the user where he/she is on your site. If you change it without changing the page contents, it's becomes a little confusing.
You can use :
window.history.pushState('obj', 'newtitle', newUrlWithQueryString)
Use
window.history.replaceState({}, document.title, updatedUri);
To update Url without reloading the page
var url = window.location.href;
var urlParts = url.split('?');
if (urlParts.length > 0) {
var baseUrl = urlParts[0];
var queryString = urlParts[1];
//update queryString in here...I have added a new string at the end in this example
var updatedQueryString = queryString + 'this_is_the_new_url'
var updatedUri = baseUrl + '?' + updatedQueryString;
window.history.replaceState({}, document.title, updatedUri);
}
To remove Query string without reloading the page
var url = window.location.href;
if (url.indexOf("?") > 0) {
var updatedUri = url.substring(0, url.indexOf("?"));
window.history.replaceState({}, document.title, updatedUri);
}
Define a new URL object, assign it the current url, append your parameter(s) to that URL object and finally push it to your browsers state.
var url = new URL(window.location.href);
//var url = new URL(window.location.origin + window.location.pathname) <- flush existing parameters
url.searchParams.append("order", orderId);
window.history.pushState(null, null, url);
Yes
document.location is the normal way.
However document.location is effectively the same as window.location, except for window.location is a bit more supported in older browsers so may be the prefferable choice.
Check out this thread on SO for more info:
What's the difference between window.location and document.location in JavaScript?
Prefix URL changes with a hashtag to avoid a redirect.
This redirects
location.href += '&test='true';
This doesn't redirect
location.href += '#&test='true';
Plain javascript: document.location = 'http://www.google.com';
This will cause a browser refresh though - consider using hashes if you're in need of having the URL updated to implement some kind of browsing history without reloading the page. You might want to look into jQuery.hashchange if this is the case.
You'll need to be more specific. What do you mean by 'update the URL'? It could mean automatically navigating to a different page, which is certainly possible.
If you want to just update the contents of the address bar without reloading the page, see Modify the URL without reloading the page
Yes - document.location.hash for queries
I am using the window location method to redirect a webpage to another after a set amount of time.
The url needs to change from www.myurl.com/home to www.myurl.com/other. The problem is that I do not know what the final URLs will be so I cannot use absolute links, they have to be a path only. This is what I have so far:
window.location.pathname = "mobility.html"
You can just prepend a / to your URL to make them relative to the domain root (without having to hardcode the domain name). Like this:
window.location = "/mobility.html"
window.location.assign("/path") also works.
I have a website on which I dynamically create Javascript code using ASP.NET handler in which I should add the referrer to a database.
I want to get referrer of referrer like so:
website1
website2 (where I create pixel to another site)
website3 (where pixel is located)
I don't have code access to website1, on website2 I can only assign JavaScript.
If I get referrer in current application state I get website2.
Is there a way to get website1 as referrer?
You can pass this value along: document.referrer.
That expression would need to be evaluated on website 2, not on website 3.
So:
// website2.html
<img src="website3.com/pxl.gif" id="pxl" />
<script>
document.getElementById('pxl').src += '?ref=' + encodeURIComponent(document.referrer);
</script>
The request to website3 will then include the referrer.
It is impossible to get the referrer of website2 on website3 directly. However, since you can use javascript on website2, you could get the referrer (document.referrer) and add it to the url of the pixel you get. For example:
var referer = document.referrer;
var pixelUrl = 'http://website3/pixel?referrer=' + escape(referrer);
// create pixel...
Hope that helps
Seems that document.referrer doesn't work in many instances.
Use the complete window.frames.top.document.referrer instead.
I have a srcURL variable which gets a path of the form /myFolder/myFile.jpg
Now this gets assigned to the img element..which obviously would call it with the complete path https://mySite.com/myFolder/myFile.jpg
Now I somehow want the https to be replaced/enforced with http using Javascript..
I am not sure if I can do this with the "replace()" method since I only get the path "/myFolder/myFile.jpg" in the srcURL variable and not with https..
How can I do that?
You are using a relative path. You need to use an explicit path when setting the src of the URL.
srcURL = '/myFolder/myFile.jpg';
srcURL = 'http://' + window.location.host + srcURL;
// srcURL == 'http://<yourdomainname>/myFolder/myFile.jpg'
Note: you'll probably get a warning message saying some parts of your page may be unsecure.
If you want to enforce plain HTTP, you should write a rewrite rule on the server to forward any HTTPS request for an image to the HTTP equivalent. On the client side, simply doing this would be sufficient (but you really need the back end piece too):
url.replace("https", "http");
I am wondering how I would get JavaScript to check if a user is on a certain URL so i can build an if statement from the result.
My reasoning is that if a user clicks on a link in the menu and they are currently on trucks.php the javascript will redirect them to a certain page. If they are not on trucks.php they will be directed to a different page.
Cheers guys.
The current location is in location.href.
The location object also contains some other useful fields:
location.hash: The part after the # in the URL
location.host: Hostname including port (if specified)
location.hostname: Just the hostname
location.pathname: The requested URI without protocol/host/port; starting with a /
location.port: The port - only if one is specified in the URL
location.protocol: Usually 'http:' or 'https:' - mind the colon at the end
In your case the most fail-safe way to check if the filename is trucks.php is this:
var parts = location.pathname.split('/');
if(parts[parts.length - 1] == 'trucks.php') {
location.href = 'some-other-page';
}
If you want to redirect without keeping the current page in history, use the following code instead of the location.href assignment:
location.replace('some-other-page');
Use window.location.href to get the current URL, or window.location.pathname to get just the path. For your specific problem, just the path name is required for the solution:
if (window.location.pathname == "/trucks.php")
window.location = "/somewhereelse.php";
Check out the MDC documentation for window.location.
Use window.location