Question

is it possible to somehow affect the hash of the URL from the <input> tag?

I need to initiate a search without a page refresh, but also want to change the URL hash, for example: search.html#query=hello%20world, when I have typed hello world in particular <input> and hit Enter (or submit).

UPD: I have an AJAX search, but I want to keep the history back and forward buttons working.

So, each time the user searches something, I want him to stay at the same page, load search results via AJAX and change the page’s URL hash to enable the history buttons.

Answer 1

Yes.

document.getElementById('search-form').onsubmit = function() {
    var hash = 'query=' + 
               encodeURIComponent(document.getElementById('query').value);

    window.location.hash = hash;
};

See it on jsFiddle.