Question

I have a javascript function which redirects user to a diff page. It goes like this…

redirect : function(url)
{
    if(!url)
        return false;

    alert(url);
    if (this.browserClass.isW3C) //IE 6.X comes here
    {
        window.location.href = url;
    }
    else if(this.browserClass.isIE4)
    {
        window.location.href = url;
    }
    else if (this.browserClass.isNN4)
    {
        window.location = url;
    }
    else
    {
        window.location = url;
    }
    return false;
},

But the problem is that this does not work in IE (internet explorer 6.X). After a short battle I saw that IE was redirecting when I change the code to this –

    if (this.browserClass.isW3C)
        setTimeout("location.href = '" +url+"'", 0);

Problem is solved. But what’s going on here? Could someone educate me? or is it just one of those mind numbing idiosyncrasies of IE…

Answer 1

This function is a complete waste of time. Assignment to location.href works equally well in all currently extant browsers. this.browserClass.isNN4 is a hint that this code is worrying about stuff that doesn’t exist in this century. As if being stinky old browser-sniffing wasn’t bad enough. (Anyway even in Netscape, both these assignments worked.)

setTimeout("location.href = '" +url+"'", 0);

Try not to pass strings to setTimeout, it’s the same thing as eval with all the same problems (eg. your URL contains an apostrophe… boom). Pass a function, an inline one if necessary (setTimeout(function() { location.href= url; }, 0);).

However what this smells like to me is you’re trapping a click or mousedown event on a link, and not cancelling the event (by returning false from the event handler). Consequently the link following default action can occur and may, depending on browser, override the location.href navigation.