Getting value of text after "#" in request

If I have a URL like this:

http://www.foo.com/bar.jsp#baz

Is there a standard way to get the string "baz" from the request object without having to do pattern patching on the whole URL string?

-Michael

No, HttpServletRequest.getRequestURI will get you from the protocol name up to the query string.
From there, you're on your own.

Originally posted by Ben Souther:
No, HttpServletRequest.getRequestURI will get you from the protocol name up to the query string.
From there, you're on your own.

Just so I'm clear on this....from playing arround with it myself and looking at the docs I've gathered that getRequestURI returns from the protocol to the the end of the query string and no more, correct? Does this mean the string "#baz" isn't even sent in the HTTP request?

Does this mean the string "#baz" isn't even sent in the HTTP request?

I think it is (someone may correct me here). But it is not part of the URI. In HTTP the # character is something called a fragment identifier. A "fragment" is an instruction to whatever user agent (typically a browser) made the request to perform an additional action after the request has been completed. It was intended as a way of allowing the user agent to give a partial view of the returned document.

Think about what happens when you click a link of this type:

The request is for http://www.somewhere.com, which is returned in its entirety, then the user agent refocuses the section of this document to the #section2 anchor. So the #section2 fragment is not important to the web server. As far as it is concerned, these two:

are identical requests for the same URI.

You might try HttpServletRequest.getRequestURL() - that might give you it (assuming #baz is not also considered part of the query string). Given the purpose of fragments though, why does your servlet need it?

Originally posted by Paul Sturrock:

You might try HttpServletRequest.getRequestURL() - that might give you it (assuming #baz is not also considered part of the query string). Given the purpose of fragments though, why does your servlet need it?

Actually, I'm doing it from a jsp, but it should work the same. I want it so that I can track which fragments are being viewed more (i.e., which are more popular). (They are coming from another jsp...I know this won't work if the link is on the same jsp).

Unfortunately, HttpServletRequest.getRequestURL() doesn't seem to include "#baz". That's what leads me to believe it's not sent as part of the request and only the user-agent knows about it. The workaround is to put the fragment id in the query string too (e.g., foo.jsp?id=baz#baz). Not that much work but I was trying not to repeat info when I don't have to.

When you click on anchor tags that point to the same page that your already on, there is no request made at all.

If you have Firefox or Mozilla installed on your computer, install the Live Headers plugin. Then go to a page with a lot of intra page links (such as the Java API docs). Click on the internal and external links and compare what the browsers sends.