window.location.search="" does nothing

[dosse91]

• Windows 10 1809
• Pale Moon 28.3.1 64 bit, installed

Changing the value of window.location.search is supposed to trigger a page reload, and it does, unless the new value is an empty string, in which case nothing happens, the old string is still there and the page doesn't reload.

To reproduce the problem:

• Open any page
• In the console, type window.location.search="anything", the page will reload and the new value will be assigned
• Type window.location.serach="", the page won't reload and the old URL is still there

All other major browsers reload the page so I assume this is a bug.

[Moonchild]

Not responding to an empty string is deliberate.
Triggering a reload by passing empty strings to location.* setters can be abused so we don't respond to empty strings passed to .host, .hostname, .href, .protocol or .search

EDIT: What is the situation here, anyway? In what circumstances do you rely on this implied behavior, and why?

[dosse91]

I discovered the problem while writing a piece of JS. I wanted to reload the page without the GET arguments that were passed previously, so I used window.location.search="" and it reloads the page. It works on all browsers but gets stuck on Pale Moon, and I traced it down to this.

If this isn't the proper way to do it, then what is it? Also, why is Pale Moon the only browser to do this?

[Moonchild]

To issue a reload, you can use location.reload()

Also, why is Pale Moon the only browser to do this?

Because we're generally more security-aware in our development.

You may as well ask why we haven't accepted 3DES ciphers for quite a while now while other browsers happily keep accepting this old and insecure cipher, or why we've never accepted insecure protocol fallbacks for TLS while other browsers happily do so to "connect at all costs", and get the same answer.

[dosse91]

location.reload() doesn't remove the GET arguments (or even the POST ones, it will display a warning).
The only way to do what I want on PM seems to be window.location=location.protocol+"//"+location.host+location.pathname;

[Moonchild]

I did ask what situation you needed this in and why, and you never answered that question. Please help me understand why this implied behavior is important for your use - I won't consider changing this behavior unless there is a very good reason to do so.

location.reload() doesn't remove the GET arguments

No, it does not -- I never said it did.

[adesh]

I think he is trying to implement "Clear all filters" kind of a button for some website. On clicking the button, he wants to load the page with all the query parameters ("search") removed.

[dosse91]

Sorry for the late reply.
Yes, I'm trying to implement a clear filters option. Am I the only one who does it this way?

[Moonchild]

Yes, I'm trying to implement a clear filters option. Am I the only one who does it this way?

You're the first asking about this since this behavior was introduced quite a long while back.

It's a low risk change, so see Issue #970 (UXP).