$location.hash('') causes infinite digest loop

[jdkanani]

Angular version: v1.3.0
$location.hash('some_param') works fine but $location.hash('') gives infinite digest loop.

Plunker link: http://embed.plnkr.co/mwtW1ZxDPDgEdj4PE7wj/preview
Related bug: #9629

Problem is any page with Angular v1.3.0 + empty hash, runs into this problem. Try this: https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/service/$location#

[caitp]

Possibly same bug as #9629

[caitp]

Note this is not related to html5Mode, (which can be seen in the repro)

[jdkanani]

@caitp Yes. of course. My mistake.

[jdkanani]

I looked into code and I think bug is the effect of commit 0656484

$location.hash('') executes location.href="http://server/" at $browser#url and causes page refresh as we are assigning same URL( without hash or search parameter) to location.href.

Meanwhile at $locationWatch, oldUrl !== $location.absUrl() always yields true and makes digest loop dirty.

Result: It throws an error and causes page refresh as we experienced.

I guess it will also fix bug #9629

[caitp]

the "bug" in the repro is pretty simple, it's an infinite loop. not angular's fault there --- but maybe its weird to chang location when search/hash changes

[jdkanani]

I agree. Infinite loop is not angular's fault. But location.href = "http://server/" causes page refresh while setting hash and search to '' and null respectively. Because of that oldUrl and $location.absUrl() will not be same in $locationWatch and evalAsync never drains.

Solution is to change location.href=url (here) to history[replace ? 'replaceState' : 'pushState'](state, '', url) (with related state changes of course).

@caitp @tbosch @IgorMinar Any suggestions?

[caitp]

well it's legacy mode, can't really rely on the history api existing until we forget IE9 exists =(

[jdkanani]

😞 I understand. Anyway, thank you @caitp for your help.