Tag: Hash vs Path Angular

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Think of Angular’s location strategies as two ways to deliver mail in a city. Imagine I’m a mail carrier working in a bustling neighborhood. My job is to deliver letters to people’s doors, but there are two different systems we use, depending on how the city is set up.

The first is HashLocationStrategy. This system is like a city where every street has its own private lane markers for each house. If I’m delivering to 123 Main Street, I use a signpost that says Main Street#123. This hashtag marker (#) is like a shortcut that makes it super clear where I’m going. Even if the city’s main post office goes down for some reason, I can still deliver because those # markers are simple, foolproof, and don’t rely on fancy rules. It’s not the prettiest, but it’s reliable, and nothing breaks along the way.

Then there’s PathLocationStrategy, which is like delivering in a city where everything looks pristine and organized. Instead of those # markers, I follow a clean address system: 123 Main Street. It looks better and feels more professional. However, it’s trickier. If the main post office isn’t running properly (say, the backend server isn’t configured right), my delivery might fail because I can’t figure out where to go on my own. This system relies heavily on the central hub’s routing rules to guide me.

In Angular, HashLocationStrategy works like the shortcut street markers—it’s simpler and doesn’t depend much on the server. PathLocationStrategy, though, makes for cleaner URLs but needs server support to ensure the addresses make sense and resolve correctly.

That’s it! Two ways to navigate the city of Angular apps, one robust and one elegant, each with its trade-offs. 😊

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1. HashLocationStrategy (Street with markers)

If I choose to use HashLocationStrategy, I configure my app to include the # marker in the URLs. This ensures Angular handles routing on its own without relying on a server for guidance.

Here’s how I would set it up in Angular:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterModule, Routes } from '@angular/router';
import { HashLocationStrategy, LocationStrategy } from '@angular/common';

const routes: Routes = [
  { path: 'home', component: HomeComponent },
  { path: 'about', component: AboutComponent },
];

@NgModule({
  imports: [RouterModule.forRoot(routes)],
  providers: [{ provide: LocationStrategy, useClass: HashLocationStrategy }],
  exports: [RouterModule],
})
export class AppRoutingModule {}

When this is configured, navigating to the “About” page will generate a URL like this:

http://example.com/#/about

This ensures the app always knows where to route the user, even if the server doesn’t handle Angular’s routes.

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2. PathLocationStrategy (Clean street address system)

If I opt for PathLocationStrategy, the URLs look cleaner, like real addresses, but I need to ensure my backend server knows how to respond correctly to Angular routes.

Here’s how to set it up:

import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
import { RouterModule, Routes } from '@angular/router';
import { PathLocationStrategy, LocationStrategy } from '@angular/common';

const routes: Routes = [
  { path: 'home', component: HomeComponent },
  { path: 'about', component: AboutComponent },
];

@NgModule({
  imports: [RouterModule.forRoot(routes)],
  providers: [{ provide: LocationStrategy, useClass: PathLocationStrategy }],
  exports: [RouterModule],
})
export class AppRoutingModule {}

Now the URL for the “About” page looks like this:

http://example.com/about

But wait—if the user refreshes this page, the browser will send the request to the server, looking for a resource at /about. If the server isn’t set up to handle this and redirect back to Angular’s index.html, the user will see a 404 error. To prevent this, I configure my server (e.g., in Apache, Nginx, or Node.js) to redirect all routes to Angular’s entry point.

Example for an Apache .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteRule ^.*$ /index.html [L]
</IfModule>

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Key Takeaways / Final Thoughts

1. HashLocationStrategy is:
   • Simple to set up.
   • Doesn’t require server-side configuration.
   • Generates URLs with a #, which some might find less clean or professional.
2. PathLocationStrategy:
   • Produces clean, SEO-friendly URLs.
   • Requires the server to handle fallback routing for Angular paths.
   • Might cause issues on refresh if the server isn’t properly configured.

When deciding between the two, think about your app’s needs:

• Want simplicity and broad compatibility? Use HashLocationStrategy.
• Need SEO and clean URLs? Opt for PathLocationStrategy but configure your server.