How to generate url encoded anchor links with AngularJS?

Question

<a href="#/search?query={{address}}" ng-repeat="address in addresses">
  {{address}}
</a>

generates links that are not url encoded if I understand correctly. What is the proper way to encode #/search?query={{address}}?

Example address is 1260 6th Ave, New York, NY.

Solution 1

You can use the native encodeURIComponent in javascript. Also, you can make it into a string filter to utilize it.

Here is the example of making escape filter.

js:

var app = angular.module('app', []);
app.filter('escape', function() {
  return window.encodeURIComponent;
});

html:

<a ng-href="#/search?query={{address | escape}}">

(updated: adapting to Karlies' answer which uses ng-href instead of plain href)

Solution 2

@Tosh's solution will return #/search?query=undefined if address is undefined in

<a ng-href="#/search?query={{address | escape}}">

If you prefer to get an empty string instead for your query you have to extend the solution to

var app = angular.module('app', []);
app.filter('escape', function() {
    return function(input) {
        if(input) {
            return window.encodeURIComponent(input); 
        }
        return "";
    }
});

This will return #/search?query= if address is undefined.

Solution 3

You could use the encodeUri filter: https://github.com/rubenv/angular-encode-uri

1. Add angular-encode-uri to your project:

   bower install --save angular-encode-uri

2. Add it to your HTML file:

   <script src="bower_components/angular-encode-uri/dist/angular-encode-uri.min.js"></script>

3. Reference it as a dependency for your app module:

   angular.module('myApp', ['rt.encodeuri']);

4. Use it in your views:

   <a href="#/search?query={{address|encodeUri}}">

Solution 4

Tosh's answer has the filter idea exactly right. I recommend do it just like that. However, if you do this, you should use "ng-href" rather than "href", since following the "href" before the binding resolves can result in a bad link.

filter:

'use strict';

angular.module('myapp.filters.urlEncode', [])

/*
 * Filter for encoding strings for use in URL query strings
 */
.filter('urlEncode', [function() {
  return window.encodeURIComponent;
}]);

view:

<a ng-href="#/search?query={{ address | urlEncode }}" ng-repeat="address in addresses">
  {{address}}
</a>

Solution 5

this is a working code example:

app.filter('urlencode', function() {
  return function(input) {
    return window.encodeURIComponent(input);
  }
});

And in the template:

<img ng-src="/image.php?url={{item.img_url|urlencode}}"

View more solutions

Comments

[randomguy]

There seems to be problems with escape, encodeURI and encodeURIComponent (stackoverflow.com/a/12796866/377920). I wonder if Angular has some built-in encoding function we can leverage instead. Good answer otherwise.

[David Pfeffer]

I reverted this back to the original answer. It was perfectly fine and someone edited it to completely change the intent.

[asmaier]

This will return #/search?query=undefined if address is undefined. If that is not what you want see a modified solution below at stackoverflow.com/a/31559624/179014 .

[toxaq]

This is a duplicate of the accepted answer with the unnecessary addition of an extra anonymous function.

[toxaq]

Why go to the lengths of importing an entire bower module when it is three lines long? A completely unnecessary dependency...

[Shashank Vivek]

@Tosh: isnt there any way to configure it at $locationProvider level ?

[JeremyWeir]

If input is 0, this will replace it with ""

[doublesharp]

If you want to only return an empty string for undefined use this - app.filter('escape', () => (input) => input !== undefined ? window.encodeURIComponent(input) : '');