How to get/set query string parameters?

[glen-84]

Has URLUtils.searchParams been removed?

What is the best way to do this?

Unrelated: Why doesn't URL use the same terminology as RFC3986? (protocol -> scheme, hash -> fragment, search -> query, etc.)

[domenic]

It's simply not implemented yet in this library :). After we go through all the changes in #36, it will probably follow soon after.

---

The terminology is likely historical. Maybe @annevk knows why browsers originally chose those terms instead of the RFC ones. That RFC is certainly dated way after browsers implemented the location object, so maybe the real question is, why did RFC3986 not use the same terminology as browsers?

Regardless, that RFC is obsolete, and you should follow the URL Standard's terminology. (Although even that doesn't match the public API, again presumably for historical reasons.)

[glen-84]

Thanks @domenic.

[annevk]

I don't really know the history behind the terms, but it seemed wrong to deviate from the terms already established in JavaScript APIs in new APIs.

[glen-84]

Okay, makes sense.

[stevenvachon]

How will PHP-like queries be handled?:

resource?array[0]=val1&array[1]=val2

resource?array[]=val1&array[]=val2

[Sebmaster]

@stevenvachon See the API here. Your first example would be a bit weird since you'd have to do get('array[0]'), get('array[1]'), the latter would be much easier with getAll('array[]'). The brackets don't have any special meaning for the query parser.

[stevenvachon]

Thanks!

[stevenvachon]

Any progress on this?

[domenic]

As you can see from the lack of commits related to it, no.

[stevenvachon]

Private progress does exist in general. Why is there no interest in implementing searchParams?

[glen-84]

@stevenvachon I'm using js-polyfills.

[stevenvachon]

@glen-84 thank you, but unfortunately, I need an implementation of URL with URLSearchParams in Node. That library only works in a browser. I even tried hacking it:

const URL = eval("(function(self){"+ require("fs").readFileSync(__dirname+"/../node_modules/js-polyfills/url.js","utf8") +"; return self}({}))").URL;  // sigh

but it tries to use document

[mmcgahan]

@stevenvachon did you ever find a working polyfill? Node v7 now has native support for the URL api with require('url').URL (including support for url.searchParams), but I'm on a project that might be 'stuck' in Node 6 for a little while longer, so if there's something out there I can try, holler.

[stevenvachon]

@mmcgahan nope 😞. I use Node v7's URL and this. As a result, I have to skip certain functionality when searchParams is missing.

[stevenvachon]

We are really going to need URLSearchParams once Node v8.0 is released.

[domenic]

Adding +1s or their equivalent is not really helpful. A pull request would be appreciated instead.

[felixfbecker]

Can we just use https://www.npmjs.com/package/url-search-params as a dependency?

[stevenvachon]

@felixfbecker it's not spec-compliant. They didn't know that a spec existed: WebReflection/url-search-params#19

[felixfbecker]

Well the implementation implements 99% of it, if sort() is missing then imo that's better than nothing.

I went ahead and did my best to file a "reasonable bug" so we can move on with this: WebReflection/url-search-params#22 😉

[domenic]

I don't intend to take on a dependency on a module maintained by someone with that attitude toward spec compliance.

It'll be better implemented in webidl2js anyway (e.g. USVString conversions).

[stevenvachon]

@felixfbecker I don't think it's 99% compliant. It uses encodeURIComponent and decodeURIComponent, which is specifically not used in this library.

[felixfbecker]

Fair enough.

[stevenvachon]

@TimothyGu do you still have an interest in doing this? You're the biggest expert on implementing it.

[felixfbecker]

url-search-params now supports .sort() as of WebReflection/url-search-params#23. Are there specific concerns/cases about encodeURIComponent that should be fixed that block an adoption here?

[domenic]

As stated above, we have no intention of using that library.

[TimothyGu]

I'd still like to get support for sequence and unions (both used by URLSearchParams) from webidl2js first. In other words, it is blocked on jsdom/webidl2js#33 (pending review), and after that PR is merged, TimothyGu/webidl2js@1d42949.

[TimothyGu]

PoC: #87