Part of URL is getting discarded

H

Howard Kaikow

How do I find where I am screwing up?

Using the following in Eudora, and equivalent links elsewhere, the URLs with
the # get truncated just before the #.

<a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar<
br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar<
br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html?HowardKaikow"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html?HowardKaikow<br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#HowardKaikow"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html#HowardKaikow<br><br>

If I include alert(location.href), the URL is truncated on input to the
script.
For example, http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar gets
truncated to http://www.standards.com/links.html.
No problem if a ? is used instead of a #.

However, the following does not truncate the URL.

<p><a
href="links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar">#FailureToDeleteToolbar</a></p>
<p><a
href="links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar">?FailureToDeleteToolbar</a></p>

I expect that I am doing something wrong.
Any pointers?

function CompareBookmarks(bmkTarget)
{
return (locSearch== bmkTarget.toLowerCase());
}
var locHash=location.hash.toLowerCase().slice(1);
var locSearch=location.search.toLowerCase().slice(1);
var lenHash=locHash.length;
var lenSearch=locSearch.length;
var blnStatus=Boolean(false);
alert(location.href);
if((lenHash != 0) && (lenSearch != 0) || ((lenHash + lenSearch) == 0))
{
blnStatus = false;
}
else
{
blnStatus = true;
if(lenSearch == 0)
{
locSearch = locHash;
}
}
if (blnStatus)
{
if(CompareBookmarks("HowardKaikow")){
location.replace("HowardKaikow.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("HowardKaikowServices")){
location.replace("HowardKaikowServices.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("SortPerformanceComparison")){
location.replace("Sorting/SortPerformanceComparison-Description.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("ThisandThat")){
location.replace("index.html#ThisandThat");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("CopyFileToPrinter")){
location.replace("ThisAndThat/CopyFileToPrinter.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("WordVBABooks")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/WordVBABooks.htm");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("WordBasicBooks")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/WordBasicBooks.htm");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("FailureToDeleteToolbar")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/VBABugsFeatures/FailureToDeleteToolbar.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("SetReferenceInWordProject")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/SetReferenceInWordProject.html");
}
else {
alert(location.href + " is not a valid URL.\n" +
"You will be taken to http://www.standards.com/index.html.");
location.replace("index.html");
}
}
else {
alert(location.href + " is not a valid URL.\n" +
"You will be taken to http://www.standards.com/index.html.");
location.replace("index.html");
}
 
M

McKirahan

Howard Kaikow said:
How do I find where I am screwing up?

Using the following in Eudora, and equivalent links elsewhere, the URLs with
the # get truncated just before the #.

<a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar<
br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar<
br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html?HowardKaikow"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html?HowardKaikow<br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#HowardKaikow"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html#HowardKaikow<br><br>

If I include alert(location.href), the URL is truncated on input to the
script.
For example, http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar gets
truncated to http://www.standards.com/links.html.
No problem if a ? is used instead of a #.

However, the following does not truncate the URL.

<p><a
href="links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar">#FailureToDeleteToolbar</a></p>
<p><a
href="links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar">?FailureToDeleteToolbar</a></p>

I expect that I am doing something wrong.
Any pointers?

function CompareBookmarks(bmkTarget)
{
return (locSearch== bmkTarget.toLowerCase());
}
var locHash=location.hash.toLowerCase().slice(1);
var locSearch=location.search.toLowerCase().slice(1);
var lenHash=locHash.length;
var lenSearch=locSearch.length;
var blnStatus=Boolean(false);
alert(location.href);
if((lenHash != 0) && (lenSearch != 0) || ((lenHash + lenSearch) == 0))
{
blnStatus = false;
}
else
{
blnStatus = true;
if(lenSearch == 0)
{
locSearch = locHash;
}
}
if (blnStatus)
{
if(CompareBookmarks("HowardKaikow")){
location.replace("HowardKaikow.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("HowardKaikowServices")){
location.replace("HowardKaikowServices.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("SortPerformanceComparison")){
location.replace("Sorting/SortPerformanceComparison-Description.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("ThisandThat")){
location.replace("index.html#ThisandThat");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("CopyFileToPrinter")){
location.replace("ThisAndThat/CopyFileToPrinter.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("WordVBABooks")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/WordVBABooks.htm");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("WordBasicBooks")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/WordBasicBooks.htm");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("FailureToDeleteToolbar")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/VBABugsFeatures/FailureToDeleteToolbar.html");
}
else if(CompareBookmarks("SetReferenceInWordProject")){
location.replace("OhMyWord/SetReferenceInWordProject.html");
}
else {
alert(location.href + " is not a valid URL.\n" +
"You will be taken to http://www.standards.com/index.html.");
location.replace("index.html");
}
}
else {
alert(location.href + " is not a valid URL.\n" +
"You will be taken to http://www.standards.com/index.html.");
location.replace("index.html");
}
Click to expand...
 
M

McKirahan

Howard Kaikow said:
How do I find where I am screwing up?

Using the following in Eudora, and equivalent links elsewhere, the URLs with
the # get truncated just before the #.

<a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar<
br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar<
br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html?HowardKaikow"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html?HowardKaikow<br><br>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#HowardKaikow"
eudora="autourl">http://www.standards.com/links.html#HowardKaikow<br><br>

If I include alert(location.href), the URL is truncated on input to the
script.
For example, http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar gets
truncated to http://www.standards.com/links.html.
No problem if a ? is used instead of a #.

However, the following does not truncate the URL.

<p><a
href="links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar">#FailureToDeleteToolbar</a></p>
<p><a
href="links.html?FailureToDeleteToolbar">?FailureToDeleteToolbar</a></p>

I expect that I am doing something wrong.
Any pointers?
Click to expand...


For me these all returned the entire link.

<html>
<head>
<title>HK.htm</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
alert(location.href)
</script>
</head>
<body>
<br><a href="http://localhost/HK.htm#Test">http://localhost/HK.htm#Test</a>
<br><a href="http://localhost/HK.htm?Test">http://localhost/HK.htm?Test</a>
<br><a href="HK.htm#Test">HK.htm#Test</a>
<br><a href="HK.htm?Test">HK.htm?Test</a>
</html>
 
M

Michael Winter

[snip]
Some that are not valid are:
#NoSuchBookmark
?HowardKaikow#HowardKaikow
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if that is invalid. According to a quick read of RFC 2396[1],
that URI would refer to the current resource with a respecified query
string and fragment identifier. Still, it should probably be avoided just
like the empty URI. Whilst IE does apply "?query" properly (though not
""), NN4 doesn't and other browsers might fail, too.
#HowardKaikow?HowardKaikow
Click to expand...

This is certainly invalid. If a fragment identifier is specified, it
should be the last part of the URI.

Mike


[1] Currently a draft standard, but I expect earlier standards agree here.
 
H

Howard Kaikow

Lee said:
Howard Kaikow said:

All of them that are valid URL's work fine for me in Firefox.
Some that are not valid are:
#NoSuchBookmark
?HowardKaikow#HowardKaikow
#HowardKaikow?HowardKaikow
Click to expand...

Yes, the script specifically disallows the above 3. The ones in
testhref.html all work as expected.
What I do not understand is why the following two fail:

<a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#FailureToDeleteToolbar"</a>
</a><a href="http://www.standards.com/links.html#HowardKaikow"</a>

I can understand if we found an error in the script, but
alert(location.href) returns a truncated URL upon entering the script for
the two cases above. So the issue boils down to, why is the URL getting
truncated?
 
H

Howard Kaikow

Michael Winter said:
[snip]
Some that are not valid are:
#NoSuchBookmark
?HowardKaikow#HowardKaikow
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if that is invalid. According to a quick read of RFC 2396[1],
that URI would refer to the current resource with a respecified query
string and fragment identifier. Still, it should probably be avoided just
like the empty URI. Whilst IE does apply "?query" properly (though not
""), NN4 doesn't and other browsers might fail, too.
#HowardKaikow?HowardKaikow
Click to expand...

This is certainly invalid. If a fragment identifier is specified, it
should be the last part of the URI.
Click to expand...

My script excludes any URL with both a # and a ? because those would not be
valid for redirections I am doing.
 
H

Howard Kaikow

Howard Kaikow said:
To simplify isolating the problem, I've created the following test.

Using http://www.standards.com/test.html, I find that ALL URLs that have a #
get truncated by location .href (see
http://www.standards.com/testlinnks.html).
Click to expand...


http://www.standards.com/testlinnks.html should have been
http://www.standards.com/testlinks.html.

I just tried from IE 4 on an old Win 95 system, same problem, location.href
truncates the # and anything to the right.
Normally, I (ab)use IE 6 on Win 2000.

Could this be an Apache server issue??
 
P

Philip Ronan

I've further isolated the problem

If I use http://www.standards.com/test.html, the # and everything to the
right gets truncated by location.href.
No problem if I use http://www.standards.com/local.html.
Click to expand...

I've been looking back through your posts and I'm afraid I don't see what
the problem is.

If you want to pass information from one page to another, then adding a
search string to the URL is certainly one way of doing it. And you seem to
have demonstrated that it works perfectly for this purpose.

But why are you also trying to do the same thing with hashes? They aren't
supposed to be used for this purpose, so I'm not in the least bit surprised
they aren't working the way you want them to.

Phil
 
H

Howard Kaikow

Philip Ronan said:
I've been looking back through your posts and I'm afraid I don't see what
the problem is.

If you want to pass information from one page to another, then adding a
search string to the URL is certainly one way of doing it. And you seem to
have demonstrated that it works perfectly for this purpose.

But why are you also trying to do the same thing with hashes? They aren't
supposed to be used for this purpose, so I'm not in the least bit surprised
they aren't working the way you want them to.
Click to expand...

If I use http://www.standards.com/test.html, the # and everything to the
right gets truncated by location.href.

No problem if I use http://www.standards.com/local.html.

I consider that to be a bug since the # is handled inconsistently.

I agree that folkes should be using the ?, but there is no reason why I
should not allow the script to process the alternative with a #.
Some folkes have told me that certain other browsers pass the full URL, I
don't know why IE doesn't, as it does so in some circumstances.
 
H

Howard Kaikow

I just figured out what is going on.
The problem is due to IE 6. IE 6 processes the following differently.

<a
href="http://www.standards.com/index-test.html#Sorting">http://www.standards
..com/index-test.html#Sorting</a>
<a href="index-test.html#Sorting">index-test.html#Sorting</a>

Where "Sorting" is a real anchor name in index-test.html.

And, the following are processed differently by IE 6.
<a
href="http://www.standards.com/index-test.html#NoSuch">http://www.standards.
com/index-test.html#NoSuch</a>
<a href="index-test.html#NoSuch">index-test.html#NoSuch</a>

Where "NoSuch" is NOT a real anchor name in index-test.html.

You can see this by trying both:

http://www.standards.com/index-HTTP.html
http://www.standards.com/index-local.html

Which uses http://www.standards.com/index-test.html, which will become my
new index.html shortly.
The script is now http://www.standards.com/links-index.js

IE seems to do this differtently than other browsers.
Folkes have informed there is no problem with Mozilla and Firefox.
 
H

Howard Kaikow

Today, my ISP made a modification to how they map an alias for my web site.
Apparently, howsoever they were previously mapping caused a problem for IE,
but not for Mozilla/FireFox.

Of course, the ISP claims that there was nothing wrong with what they were
previously doing.
In any case, whatever they were doing did cause a problem for IE, so there
remains unanswered the question of why Mozilla/FireFox did not have the same
problem.

I now have my script going thru my index.html and everything is working as
expected.

I will shortly be removing the other files referenced in this thread as the
problem is no longer reproducible since my ISP changed/corrected whatever at
their end.
 
H

Howard Kaikow

The explanation I've gotten is the following.

IE sends the url to the server, and the server sends back the redirected url
to the browser.
So IE is preserving queries, but not anchors, when a URL has been
redirected.

I would consider this to be a bug in IE, especially since Mozilla/FoxFire do
preserve the anchors.

I tried calling MSFT To report this problem, but they wanted to charge me
just to talk to the support folkes.
No way will I do that/
 

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