$location + history.pushState = $digest infinite loop

[agentcooper]

Here is the test-case: http://jsbin.com/IxAGEzI/1/

We used Angular on page with some old code, which uses history.pushState to change the url at some point. After that, when entering digest loop, it goes crazy and "Infinite $digest Loop" error happens.

So should Angular work fine in that situation or not?

[petebacondarwin]

This appears to be a bug in $location. It seems that since you are changing the URL outside angular, the $location service thinks that it should change it back to what it was before (since it is different). But inside $browser.url() it finds that the "new" url is the same as $location's "old" url and so doesn't change the url.

Then on the next turn of the $digest loop it does it again, and again, and again, etc.

We need a way to manage this situation in a stable manner.

[fraywing]

This is the exact issue i'm having in my issue as well:
#3915

I totally agree that there should be a better way to manage this situation, it seems like a common and growing recurring problem.

[thebigredgeek]

You're test case is a bit buggy. Could you possible address some of the errors?

Uncaught ReferenceError: remoteWindow is not defined

[thebigredgeek]

@petebacondarwin , would a dirty check of window.location vs $location solve this? Where Angular defaults to window.location and sets $location to that when there are conflicts?

[wlingke]

We kept running into this error too. A work around we implemented to handle changing the URL but not anything else was to use $location.path to change the URL, then listening for $routeChangeStart and then using event.preventDefault(). This'll change the URL but stop anything else from happening. You can also do this with $stateChangeStart if you're using Angular UI Router.

Nice thing about this versus pushstate is that it works on ie 8 and 9 without having to use history.js

[gigablox]

For anyone else that needs a hack to get by I have a little write up here: angular-ui/ui-router#562 (comment)

[julianjelfs]

This is affecting us too. A fix would be very nice.

[tmaximini]

Same here, trying to update URL without trashing controllers (btw. it works well when used from the dev console, but gets crazy when using from angular code)

[shadda]

Just ran into this as well. Any solid workarounds?

[josebalius]

Same thing here, anything reliable out there?

[denoww]

same problem =/

[ryanjohnvelasco]

Temporary fix: Tested for angularjs on browsers.
it does an infinite loop based on petebacondarwin, so to overcome that

1. set your new url in $location
2. $location.replace();
3. window.history.pushState(null,'any', $location.absUrl());