How does one escape the # sign in a Url pattern in UrlMappings.groovy?

Question

In order to maintain the current set of Urls in a project, I have to be able to use the # (pound sign) in the Url. For some reason the pound sign does not appear to work normally in this project for UrlMappings.groovy.

Is there a special escape-sequence that must be used when placing # signs in UrlMappings.groovy?

Am I missing some reason why one cannot use pound signs at all?

In the following URL Mapping example, the browser goes to the correct page, but the pageName variable is null:

"/test/${urlName}#/overview"(controller:'test', action:'overview') {
    pageName = "overview"
}

could you give a specific example for the desired url mapping? — Hoàng Long, Apr 27 '11 at 09:26
@HoàngLong: jenny's working on the same project as me, so she posted an example. — Mark Rogers, Apr 27 '11 at 14:15
test again, it doesn't work. It seems that netbrain is right: the url with "#" sign can be accepted by grails app, but it doesn't mapped to the right controller/action. — Hoàng Long, Apr 28 '11 at 09:57
actually there's a way to escape "#" character, but may not like you expect. Please look at my updated answer. — Hoàng Long, Apr 28 '11 at 10:15

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 27 '11 at 11:46

3

I thought everything after # in the url would be treated on the client side of the browsers where it tries to find a and scroll to that location.

If you dump the request containing the pound char, do you even see the data behind #?

answered Apr 27 '11 at 11:46

netbrain

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You're right, I didn't realize this: [Fragment Identifier](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragment_identifier) – jennyfofenny Apr 28 '11 at 14:00

Hoàng Long · Answer 2 · 2011-04-28T10:13:36.373

0

I used a Named URL mapping and it works fine, no need to escape the "#" sign:

name test: "/#abc" (controller: 'test', action:'homepage')

EDIT: My above answer is wrong. In fact, it falls to a special case when homepage is the default action of the view.

Netbrain is right, the path after "#" will never be sent to server. In stead, I found that it's possible using "%23" instead of "#". Please take a look at here.

For example, instead of /test#/abc we should use /test%23/abc as URL mapping (both at client side & server side).

edited Apr 28 '11 at 10:13

answered Apr 27 '11 at 09:41

Hoàng Long

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It works, but additional variables in the URL Mapping are not being set for me. – jennyfofenny Apr 27 '11 at 13:49
@jenny: it seems the only thing we can do is replacing all "#" by "%23". – Hoàng Long Apr 28 '11 at 10:16
What we found out from further investigation is that anything passed after the # symbol (called the fragment identifier) is not sent to the server, it's strictly client-side: [Fragment identifier](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragment_identifier), so it can't be captured on the server-side. – jennyfofenny Apr 28 '11 at 13:59
@jenny: yeah. So the answer for this question is impossible. I have read your other question: it seems you need some javascript tricks to get around. Sorry I can't help anything further – Hoàng Long Apr 28 '11 at 16:33

How does one escape the # sign in a Url pattern in UrlMappings.groovy?

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