Non-parameterised queries (?gclid, ?utm_*) stripped down on redirect during first load

[NeoGenet1c]

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• [x] Bug Report
• [ ] Feature Request
• [ ] General Query

My version of UI-Router is: v1.0.11

Bug Report

Current Behavior:

When I add a tracking query to the URL (e.g. marketing or Google Analytics queries such as ?gclid or ?utm), ui-router strips it down if the source URL is a redirect.

Example:

www.site.com/page/?tab=main&utm_source=Facebook

gets correctly redirected to: www.site.com/page/redirected?tab=main

... but strips down the 'utm_source' query. This is problematic because Angulartics (Angular.js library for GA) is loaded after the transition is successful, which means it cannot properly track 'utm_source'.

I believe this is a bug/ inconsistent behaviour, because if I invoke a page without a redirect, e.g. www.site.com/page/redirected?tab=main&utm_source=Facebook ... the utm_source tag is kept in the URL. The first successful transition should not alter input URL, even if the queries are not matching defined parameters.

Expected Behavior:

After accessing a page with a redirect for the first time, e.g.: www.site.com/page/?tab=main&utm_source=Facebook

queries not defined in parameters should be kept in the URL after the transition succeeds: www.site.com/page/redirected?tab=main&utm_source=Facebook

[christopherthielen]

This is probably a state based redirection? (note: you can do url based redirections using router.urlService.rules.*). When UI-Router does a state redirection, it applies the parameter values to state's URL, then constructs the final destination URL. If that url doesn't include a parameter for utm_source then it's expected that it's not included in the final url.

Suggest you add utm_source as a query parameter to the state being redirected to and the state being redirected from. To be safe, you could add it as a parameter to some common parent state.

Here's a blitz that demonstrates: https://stackblitz.com/edit/ui-router-angularjs-ex4rmi?file=index.html

Closing as not a bug. Hope the sample helps!

[NeoGenet1c]

Thanks for the answer @christopherthielen

I still feel this is a bug.

As I already explained, if the state is executed without a redirect andutm_source is present in the query, the view renders correctly and the utm_source remains in the URL.

However, if there is a state-based redirect, the utm_source gets stripped from the URL.

From a user's standpoint, whether or not there is some background redirect should not matter - In one case, the URL query (that's not part of the state's parameters) disappears, in the other, it remains. The behaviour is inconsistent. Why isn't it stripped in both instances?