What's the most concise way to read query parameters in AngularJS?

Angularjs Problem Overview

I'd like to read the values of URL query parameters using AngularJS. I'm accessing the HTML with the following URL:

http://127.0.0.1:8080/test.html?target=bob

As expected, location.search is "?target=bob". For accessing the value of target, I've found various examples listed on the web, but none of them work in AngularJS 1.0.0rc10. In particular, the following are all undefined:

$location.search.target
$location.search['target']
$location.search()['target']

Anyone know what will work? (I'm using $location as a parameter to my controller)

Update:

I've posted a solution below, but I'm not entirely satisfied with it. The documentation at Developer Guide: Angular Services: Using $location states the following about $location:

> When should I use $location? > > Any time your application needs to react to a change in the current > URL or if you want to change the current URL in the browser.

For my scenario, my page will be opened from an external webpage with a query parameter, so I'm not "reacting to a change in the current URL" per se. So maybe $location isn't the right tool for the job (for the ugly details, see my answer below). I've therefore changed the title of this question from "How to read query parameters in AngularJS using $location?" to "What's the most concise way to read query parameters in AngularJS?". Obviously I could just use javascript and regular expression to parse location.search, but going that low-level for something so basic really offends my programmer sensibilities.

So: is there a better way to use $location than I do in my answer, or is there a concise alternate?

Angularjs Solutions

Solution 1 - Angularjs

You can inject $routeParams (requires ngRoute) into your controller. Here's an example from the docs:

// Given:
// URL: http://server.com/index.html#/Chapter/1/Section/2?search=moby
// Route: /Chapter/:chapterId/Section/:sectionId
//
// Then
$routeParams ==> {chapterId:1, sectionId:2, search:'moby'}

EDIT: You can also get and set query parameters with the $location service (available in ng), particularly its search method: $location.search().

$routeParams are less useful after the controller's initial load; $location.search() can be called anytime.

Solution 2 - Angularjs

Good that you've managed to get it working with the html5 mode but it is also possible to make it work in the hashbang mode.

You could simply use:

$location.search().target

to get access to the 'target' search param.

For the reference, here is the working jsFiddle: http://web.archive.org/web/20130317065234/http://jsfiddle.net/PHnLb/7/

var myApp = angular.module('myApp', []);

function MyCtrl($scope, $location) {

    $scope.location = $location;
    $scope.$watch('location.search()', function() {
        $scope.target = ($location.search()).target;
    }, true);

    $scope.changeTarget = function(name) {
        $location.search('target', name);
    }
}

<div ng-controller="MyCtrl">

    <a href="#!/test/?target=Bob">Bob</a>
    <a href="#!/test/?target=Paul">Paul</a>
    
    <hr/>    
    URL 'target' param getter: {{target}}<br>
    Full url: {{location.absUrl()}}
    <hr/>
    
    <button ng-click="changeTarget('Pawel')">target=Pawel</button>
    
</div>

Solution 3 - Angularjs

To give a partial answer my own question, here is a working sample for HTML5 browsers:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html ng-app="myApp">
<head>
  <script src="http://code.angularjs.org/1.0.0rc10/angular-1.0.0rc10.js"></script>
  <script>
    angular.module('myApp', [], function($locationProvider) {
      $locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
    });
    function QueryCntl($scope, $location) {
      $scope.target = $location.search()['target'];
    }
  </script>
</head>
<body ng-controller="QueryCntl">

Target: {{target}}<br/>

</body>
</html>

The key was to call $locationProvider.html5Mode(true); as done above. It now works when opening http://127.0.0.1:8080/test.html?target=bob. I'm not happy about the fact that it won't work in older browsers, but I might use this approach anyway.

An alternative that would work with older browsers would be to drop the html5mode(true) call and use the following address with hash+slash instead:

http://127.0.0.1:8080/test.html#/?target=bob

The relevant documentation is at Developer Guide: Angular Services: Using $location (strange that my google search didn't find this...).

Solution 4 - Angularjs

It can be done by two ways:

Using $routeParams

Best and recommended solution is to use $routeParams into your controller. It Requires the ngRoute module to be installed.

   function MyController($scope, $routeParams) {
      // URL: http://server.com/index.html#/Chapter/1/Section/2?search=moby
      // Route: /Chapter/:chapterId/Section/:sectionId
      // $routeParams ==> {chapterId:'1', sectionId:'2', search:'moby'}
      var search = $routeParams.search;
  }

2. Using $location.search().

There is a caveat here. It will work only with HTML5 mode. By default, it does not work for the URL which does not have hash(#) in it http://localhost/test?param1=abc&param2=def

You can make it work by adding #/ in the URL. http://localhost/test#/?param1=abc&param2=def

$location.search() to return an object like:

{
  param1: 'abc',
  param2: 'def'
}

Solution 5 - Angularjs

$location.search() will work only with HTML5 mode turned on and only on supporting browser.

This will work always:

$window.location.search

Solution 6 - Angularjs

Just to summerize .

If your app is being loaded from external links then angular wont detect this as a URL change so $loaction.search() would give you an empty object . To solve this you need to set following in your app config(app.js)

.config(['$routeProvider', '$locationProvider', function ($routeProvider,     $locationProvider) 
{
   $routeProvider
      .when('/', {
         templateUrl: 'views/main.html',
         controller: 'MainCtrl'
      })
      .otherwise({
         redirectTo: '/'
      });

      $locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
 }]);

Solution 7 - Angularjs

Just a precision to Ellis Whitehead's answer. $locationProvider.html5Mode(true); won't work with new version of angularjs without specifying the base URL for the application with a <base href=""> tag or setting the parameter requireBase to false

From the doc :

>If you configure $location to use html5Mode (history.pushState), you need to specify the base URL for the application with a tag or configure $locationProvider to not require a base tag by passing a definition object with requireBase:false to $locationProvider.html5Mode():

$locationProvider.html5Mode({
  enabled: true,
  requireBase: false
});

Solution 8 - Angularjs

you could also use $location.$$search.yourparameter

Solution 9 - Angularjs

I found that for an SPA HTML5Mode causes lots of 404 error problems, and it is not necessary to make $location.search work in this case. In my case I want to capture a URL query string parameter when a user comes to my site, regardless of which "page" they initially link to, AND be able to send them to that page once they log in. So I just capture all that stuff in app.run

$rootScope.$on('$stateChangeStart', function (e, toState, toParams, fromState, fromParams) {
    if (fromState.name === "") {
        e.preventDefault();
        $rootScope.initialPage = toState.name;
        $rootScope.initialParams = toParams;
        return;
    }
    if ($location.search().hasOwnProperty('role')) {
        $rootScope.roleParameter = $location.search()['role'];
    }
    ...
}

then later after login I can say $state.go($rootScope.initialPage, $rootScope.initialParams)

Solution 10 - Angularjs

It's a bit late, but I think your problem was your URL. If instead of

http://127.0.0.1:8080/test.html?target=bob

you had

http://127.0.0.1:8080/test.html#/?target=bob

I'm pretty sure it would have worked. Angular is really picky about its #/

Content Type	Original Author	Original Content on Stackoverflow
Question	Ellis Whitehead	View Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - Angularjs	Andrew Joslin	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - Angularjs	pkozlowski.opensource	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - Angularjs	Ellis Whitehead	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - Angularjs	Fizer Khan	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - Angularjs	Illidan	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 6 - Angularjs	sapy	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 7 - Angularjs	S.Thiongane	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 8 - Angularjs	bogdanbujdea	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 9 - Angularjs	nuander	View Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 10 - Angularjs	Octavio Kidd	View Answer on Stackoverflow