I’m trying to modify the URL of a page (actually the parent frameset) in

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Asked: June 7, 20262026-06-07T20:19:50+00:00 2026-06-07T20:19:50+00:00

I’m trying to modify the URL of a page (actually the parent frameset) in

0

I’m trying to modify the URL of a page (actually the parent frameset) in javascript like so:

function b(str) {
  window.top.location.hash = str // originally was "#"+str
  return true
}

This is being called from an anchor in gen.php, like so:

<a onclick="b('Page29.html')" href="Page29.html" target="content">

The top-level page looks like this:

<!doctype html> 
<html>
<head>
<title>Test</title>
</head>
<frameset cols="320,*" frameborder="0" border="0" framespacing="0">
<frame name="menu" src="gen.php">
<frame name="content" src="about:blank">
</frameset>
</html>

This works fine in Firefox, but in Safari (update: AND) Chrome just changing the anchor re-loads the entire page! This is a problem because there is state in my page that is being lost. How can I suppress this behavior?

Here is the updated code that I am trying based on suggestion below:

function b(str) {
  top.location.href = "#"+str
  return true
}

In this case, when I click on the link, the top-level frame drops, and the page is replaced by gen.php#Page29.html.

Update: Looks like the location.hash not working in a frame is a bug in WebKit, present since 2009:
https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=24578

Here is the fix I came up with, based on the answers below:

function b(str) {
    if(history.pushState) {
        top.history.replaceState(null, top.document.title, '#'+str);
    } else {
        top.location.hash = hash;
    }
}