ACTUAL_URL is not actual URL ;)

[Alexander Limi]

This is a follow-up to http://www.zope.org/Collectors/Zope/1568

The new ACTUAL_URL variable is 95% there, but doesn't include the query string of the URL, which it has to do to solve the use case for why ACTUAL_URL was invented in the first place: HTML anchors.

Please do not invent yet another variable for this, but add the query string to ACTUAL_URL. The other variations needed can be constructed from the existing elements, this is a convenience method for developers who need to render the URL currently shown in the URL bar.

(And if you *do* invent another variable, please make ACTUAL_URL include the query string and find another name for the one without the query string. ;)

[Andreas Jung (ajung)]

Patches are welcome :-)

[yuppie (yuppie3)]

Before we add yet another variable, could you please test if this code has the desired behavior:

  <a tal:define="actual_query python:request['QUERY_STRING'] and '?'+request['QUERY_STRING'] or ''"
     tal:attributes="href string:${request/ACTUAL_URL}${actual_query}#someContent"
  > Skip to content</a>

'URL' variables in REQUEST never include the query string, so I'm not sure if it is a good idea to change ACTUAL_URL. Changing its behavior might also break existing code.

[yuppie (yuppie3)]

Changes: submitter email, edited transcript, new comment

fixed my last comment: should be ACTUAL_URL, not VIRTUAL_URL

[Alexander Limi (limi)]

1) If you look at the original use case and reason for introducing ACTUAL_URL, it was to use with anchors, which is why it needs the query string

2) The ACTUAL_URL code has existed for two point releases (introduced in 2.7.4 or 2.7.5), and I can't see how people can rely on it *not* having the query string part. People expect it to, as several bug reports in the Plone Collector has shown - which is why I'm here. ;)

Anyway, a notice in the changelog that it includes the query string should be enough. I doubt anyone has gotten around to including this call in their code yet - and if they have, they probably expect it to solve the anchor use case, which it won't - yet.

Thanks for the code snippet, will test.

[Florent Guillaume (efge)]

+1 for including the query string.

[Alexander Limi (limi)]

I can confirm that the code snippet does the right thing, and gives the *actual* ACTUAL_URL :)

[yuppie (yuppie3)]

> = Comment - Entry #5 by limi on Jul 18, 2005 12:02 pm
>
> 1) If you look at the original use case and reason for introducing
> ACTUAL_URL, it was to use with anchors, which is why it needs the query
> string

Well. That is *your* use case. VIRTUAL_URL was originally introduced for other use cases. And ACTUAL_URL is nothing special for anchors, it supersedes VIRTUAL_URL for all use cases.

> 2) The ACTUAL_URL code has existed for two point releases (introduced in
> 2.7.4 or 2.7.5), and I can't see how people can rely on it *not* having
> the query string part. People expect it to, as several bug reports in the
> Plone Collector has shown - which is why I'm here. ;)

Meanwhile more Zope versions with ACTUAL_URL are released. And people might have started working around this issue with code like the snippet in #3.

> Anyway, a notice in the changelog that it includes the query string
> should be enough. I doubt anyone has gotten around to including this call
> in their code yet - and if they have, they probably expect it to solve
> the anchor use case, which it won't - yet.

I have code that will break if ACTUAL_URL is changed and I doubt I'm the only one.

-1 for changing the behavior of ACTUAL_URL (at least in a minor release)

[Andreas Jung (ajung)]

I agree with Yuppie that we can't change the behaviour for compabitility reasons. If necessary one could build yet another variable ACTUAL_URL_XXXX (think about a new suffix) to implement finally the desired behaviour.

[Hanno Schlichting (hannosch)]

Ah, I found a good example for an "opinion" ticket :)