We've been working on a web application and we've just about got it finished up, but there's one thing that bothering us (although by no means is it going to stop production.)
When we call one of the pages (index.html), we sometimes have to pass it a variable in the URL (searchid). So we get a page like http://domain.com/index.html?searchid=string.
We'd ideally like to not show the ?searchid=string, but I'm not sure how we'd do that.
My group doesn't own the index.html page (but we are working with the group that does), so I don't know how much we'd be able to do with anything like .htaccess or similar.
I was thinking about POSTing the variable, but I don't know how to receive it with just HTML and jQuery. Another person in my group thought that after the page loaded we could remove it from the URL, but I assume we would need a page refresh which would then lose the data anyway.
I'm trying to avoid XY problem where the problem is X and I ask about Y, so what's the right way to remove the variable from the URL?
You can use the History API, but it does require a modern browser
history.replaceState({}, null, "/index.html");
That will cause your URL to appear as /index.html without reloading the page
More information here:
Manipulated the browser history
Your question seems to indicate that the target page is not and will not be powered by some server-side script. If that's the case, I'd suggest changing the querystring to a hash, which has the advantage of being directly editable without triggering a page-load:
http://yourdomain.com/page.html#search=value
<script type='text/javascript'>
// grab the raw "querystring"
var query = document.location.hash.substring(1);
// immediately change the hash
document.location.hash = '';
// parse it in some reasonable manner ...
var params = {};
var parts = query.split(/&/);
for (var i in parts) {
var t = part[i].split(/=/);
params[decodeURIComponent(t[0])] = decodeURIComponent(t[1]);
}
// and do whatever you need to with the parsed params
doSearch(params.search);
</script>
Though, it would be better to get some server-side scripting involved here.
It's possible to rewrite the URL using JavaScript's history API. History.js is a library that does this very well.
That being said, I don't think there's any need for removing the query-string from the URL, unless you're dynamically changing the contents of the page to make the current query-string irrelevant.
You could post the data, then let the server include the posted data in the page, e.g.:
echo "<script> post_data = ".json_encode($_POST)." </script>";
This works cross-browser.
Related
I know on client side (javascript) you can use windows.location.hash but could not find anyway to access from the server side. I'm using asp.net.
We had a situation where we needed to persist the URL hash across ASP.Net post backs. As the browser does not send the hash to the server by default, the only way to do it is to use some Javascript:
When the form submits, grab the hash (window.location.hash) and store it in a server-side hidden input field Put this in a DIV with an id of "urlhash" so we can find it easily later.
On the server you can use this value if you need to do something with it. You can even change it if you need to.
On page load on the client, check the value of this this hidden field. You will want to find it by the DIV it is contained in as the auto-generated ID won't be known. Yes, you could do some trickery here with .ClientID but we found it simpler to just use the wrapper DIV as it allows all this Javascript to live in an external file and be used in a generic fashion.
If the hidden input field has a valid value, set that as the URL hash (window.location.hash again) and/or perform other actions.
We used jQuery to simplify the selecting of the field, etc ... all in all it ends up being a few jQuery calls, one to save the value, and another to restore it.
Before submit:
$("form").submit(function() {
$("input", "#urlhash").val(window.location.hash);
});
On page load:
var hashVal = $("input", "#urlhash").val();
if (IsHashValid(hashVal)) {
window.location.hash = hashVal;
}
IsHashValid() can check for "undefined" or other things you don't want to handle.
Also, make sure you use $(document).ready() appropriately, of course.
[RFC 2396][1] section 4.1:
When a URI reference is used to perform a retrieval action on the
identified resource, the optional fragment identifier, separated from
the URI by a crosshatch ("#") character, consists of additional
reference information to be interpreted by the user agent after the
retrieval action has been successfully completed. As such, it is not
part of a URI, but is often used in conjunction with a URI.
(emphasis added)
[1]: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2396#section-4
That's because the browser doesn't transmit that part to the server, sorry.
Probably the only choice is to read it on the client side and transfer it manually to the server (GET/POST/AJAX).
Regards
Artur
You may see also how to play with back button and browser history
at Malcan
Just to rule out the possibility you aren't actually trying to see the fragment on a GET/POST and actually want to know how to access that part of a URI object you have within your server-side code, it is under Uri.Fragment (MSDN docs).
Possible solution for GET requests:
New Link format: http://example.com/yourDirectory?hash=video01
Call this function toward top of controller or http://example.com/yourDirectory/index.php:
function redirect()
{
if (!empty($_GET['hash'])) {
/** Sanitize & Validate $_GET['hash']
If valid return string
If invalid: return empty or false
******************************************************/
$validHash = sanitizeAndValidateHashFunction($_GET['hash']);
if (!empty($validHash)) {
$url = './#' . $validHash;
} else {
$url = '/your404page.php';
}
header("Location: $url");
}
}
I need to redirect to another page onClick of submit and call a function making an ajax call. This is what I have :
$('#submitButton').click(function() {
window.location.href = "otherPage";
displayData();
});
Also, Another way I tried is to set the form fields on otherPage by using
var elem = window.document.getElementById(field);
elem.value = "new-value";
so that I could call the eventhandler of a submit button present on otherPage, but it doesn't work. Please let me know where I am wrong.
I'm not sure if there is a neat way to achieve this, but you can add a hash in your url you redirect to, then just simply check if the hash exists, execute function and remove hash.
Here are some handy URLs:
Location.Hash - information about this function and how to use it.
Removing hash from url without a page refresh - This was a bit of an issue, as window.location.href = ''; removes everything after the hash.
A hash (as Arko Elsenaar said) or a querystring parameter added to the target URL would allow you to detect what to do once there.
The hash makes it a bit easier while the querystring is cleaner if you want to pass more information.
For instance on the first page: window.location.href = "other/page.html#displayData";
On the second page:
if (window.location.hash === '#displayData') {displayData();}
Another way could be to use the HTML5 Storage API, if and only if the 2 pages are on the same domain.
1st page would do, before the redirection:
localStorage.displayData = true
And the 2nd:
if (localStorage.displayData) {displayData();}
However in this case you'll need to clean up the localStorage.displayData value when used, otherwise it will stay there forever and your second page would always find it set to true.
delete localStorage.displayData
All in all, the hash method seems best here.
I have one of those websites that basically gives you a yes or no response to a question posed by the url. An example being http://isnatesilverawitch.com.
My site is more of an in-joke and the answer changes frequently. What I would like to be able to do is store a short one or two word string and be able to change it without editing the source on my site if that is possible using only javascript. I don't want to set up an entire database just to hold a single string.
Is there a way to write to a file without too much trouble, or possibly a web service designed to retrieve and change a single string that I could use to power such a site? I know it's a strange question, but the people in my office will definitely get a kick out of it. I am even considering building a mobile app to manipulate the answer on the fly.
ADDITIONAL:
To be clear I just want to change the value of a single string but I can't just use a random answer. Without being specific, think of it as a site that states if the doctor is IN or OUT, but I don't want it to spit out a random answer, it needs to say IN when he is IN and OUT when he is out. I will change this value manually, but I would like to make the process simple and something I can do on a mobile device. I can't really edit source (nor do I want to) from a phone.
If I understand correctly you want a simple text file that you change a simple string value in and have it appear someplace on your site.
var string = "loading;"
$.get('filename.txt',function(result){
string = result;
// use string
})
Since you don't want to have server-side code or a database, one option is to have javascript retrieve values from a Google Spreadsheet. Tabletop (http://builtbybalance.com/Tabletop/) is one library designed to let you do this. You simply make a public Google Spreadsheet and enable "Publish to web", which gives you a public URL. Here's a simplified version of the code you'd then use on your site:
function init() {
Tabletop.init( { url: your_public_spreadshseet_url,
callback: function (data) {
console.log(data);
},
simpleSheet: true } )
}
Two ideas for you:
1) Using only JavaScript, generate the value randomly (or perhaps based on a schedule, which you can hard code ahead of time once and the script will take care of the changes over time).
2) Using Javascript and a server-side script, you can change the value on the fly.
Use JavaScript to make an AJAX request to a text file that contains the value. Shanimal's answer gives you the code to achieve that.
To change the value on the fly you'll need another server-side script that writes the value to some sort of data store (your text file in this case). I'm not sure what server-side scripting (e.g. PHP, Perl, ASP, Python) runtime you have on your web server, but I could help you out with the code for PHP where you could change the value by pointing to http://yoursite.com/changeValue.php?Probably in a browser. The PHP script would simply write Probably to the text file.
Though javascript solution is possible it is discouraged. PHP is designed to do such things like changing pieces of sites randomly. Assuming you know that, I will jump to javascript solution.
Because you want to store word variation in a text file, you will need to download this file using AJAX or store it in .js file using array or string.
Then you will want to change the words. Using AJAX will make it possible to change the words while page is loaded (so they may, but do not have to, change in front of viewers eyes).
Changing page HTML
Possible way of changing (words are in array):
wordlist.js
var status = "IN"; //Edit IN to OUT whenever you want
index.html
<script src="wordlist.js"></script>
<div>Doctor is <span id="changing">IN</span></div>
<script>
function changeWord(s) { //Change to anything
document.getElementById("changing").innerHTML = s;
}
changeWord(status); //Get the status defined in wordlist.js
</script>
Reloading from server
If you want to change answer dynamically and have the change effect visible on all open pages, you will need AJAX or you will have to make browser reload the word list, as following:
Reloading script
function reloadWords() {
var script = document.createElement("script"); //Create <script>
script.type="text/javascript";
script.src = "wordlist.js"; //Set the path
script.onload = function() {changeWord(status)}; //Change answer after loading
document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(script); //Append to <head> so it loads as script. Can be appended anywhere, but I like to use <head>
}
Using AJAX
Here we assume use of text file. Simplest solution I guess. With AJAX it looks much like this:
http = ActiveXObject==null?(new XMLHttpRequest()):(new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"));
http.onloadend = function() {
document.getElementById("changing").innerHTML = this.responseText; //Set the new response, "IN" or "OUT"
}
http.open("GET", "words.txt")
http.send();
Performance of AJAX call may be improved using long-poling. I will not introduce this feature more here, unless someone is interested.
Is it possible to manipulate the query string without actually submitting a new HTTP request?
For example, I have a page that allows the user to make a bunch of changes to some configuration options. When they first go to the page it will be the following URL:
www.mysite.com/options
As they click certain elements on the page, a link here or a radio button there, the URL would be changed to something like:
www.mysite.com/options?xkj340834jadf
This way the user can copy the URL and later go to the same page and have the configuration be exactly how it was before, but I don't want to submit new requests as they click the options.
Is this something that is possible using javascript/jquery?
I don't think this is possible.
Your best solution would be to add an anchor tag to the end of the URL, which can then be read by jquery to determine a HTTP redirect.
I believe google also indexes when you use #! for this purpose.
What's the shebang/hashbang (#!) in Facebook and new Twitter URLs for?
The best solution is by using hash. As Curt stated, #! is the way you tell Google that this is a webapp but if you don't need crawling, don't worry.
You can use then something like this:
var hash = location.hash; //or window.location.hash
hash = hash.replace(/^.*#!/, ''); // strip #! from the values
//do something with the values you got stored in `hash` var
If you need other things to happen, like everytime the hash changes, you do something, you can bind the 'hashchange' event.For example:
I use jQuery hashchange event by Ben Alman for that:
$(window).hashchange( function(){
var hash = location.hash;
hash = hash.replace(/^.*#!/, '');
// do something with 'hash' everytime it changes
// EXAMPLE:Set the page title based on the hash.
document.title = 'The hash is '+hash+'.';
return false; //this prevent browser from following the # after doing what you wanted
});
I made a bookmark that users can add and it sends them to my site capturing the referrer.
Bookmark
My problem is that for some reason the location.href part instead of printing http:// it prints: "http%3A//". I want to remove it and get just the domain.com
I have a similar code that maybe could be useful but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to implement it inside HTML.
// Function to clean url
function cleanURL(url)
{
if(url.match(/http:\/\//))
{
url = url.substring(7);
}
if(url.match(/^www\./))
{
url = url.substring(4);
}
url = "www.chusmix.com/tests/?ref=www." + url;
return url;
}
</script>
Thanks
In most browsers, the referrer is sent as a standard field of the HTTP protocol. This technically isn't the answer to your question, but it would be a cleaner and less conspicuous solution to grab that information server-side.
In PHP, for example, you could write:
$ref = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
...and then store that in a text file or a database or what-have-you. I can't really tell what your end purpose is, because clicking a bookmark lacks the continuity of browsing that necessitates referrer information (like the way that moving from a search engine or a competitor's website would). They could be coming from a history of zero, from another page on your site or something unrelated altogether.
Like already stated in my comment:
Be aware that this kind of bookmarking may harm users privacy, so please inform them accordingly.
That being said:
First, please use encodeURIComponent() instead of escape(), since escape() is deprecated since ECMAScript-262 v3.
Second, to get rid of the "http%3A//" do not use location.href, but assemble the location properties host, pathname, search and hash instead:
encodeURIComponent(location.host + location.pathname + location.search + location.hash);