How can I remove the query string from the url after the page loads?

Question

I have a URL with a long query string attached to it. After the page loads, I do not require the query string. So I want to remove the query string from the address bar with

Answer 1

As others have said, you can do this using the History API in modern browsers (IE10+, FF4+, Chrome5+). There was no full example in the answers, so figured I'd share my solution, as I just had a requirement to do the same thing:

history.pushState(null, "", location.href.split("?")[0]);

If you are using Modernizr, you can also check if the History API is available like so:

if (Modernizr.history) {
    history.pushState(null, "", location.href.split("?")[0]);
}

Answer 2

You can't do that without reloading the page, imagine if you could put whatever you wanted in the browser address bar? Security fun :)

Although you can now do it in HTML5 (which will only work on browsers supporting it) using the new history API, but realistically, your scenario best warrants a rewrite instead of including that (seems sledgehammer to crack a nut).

As you said you don't need the query string after the page loads, you should really post back, then redirected to another URL after you've finished your processing.

Answer 3

You could avoid a query string altogether by using POST instead of GET.

Answer 4

Remove query string value from address bar

var uri = window.location.toString();
if (uri.indexOf("?") > 0) {
    var clean_uri = uri.substring(0, uri.indexOf("?"));
    window.history.replaceState({}, document.title, clean_uri);
}

Answer 5

window.history.replaceState(null, null, window.location.pathname);

Answer 6

Use history.replaceState({}, "Title", "page.html");

same syntax for pushState. However you will have to find a way to make IE understand that.

A better way would be to use Apache mod_rewrite module. It's quite easy to use.