How to remove hash (#) from URL in Flutter web

Question

The default URL of a Flutter web project defines a URL containing a hashtag (#), as follows:

http://localhost:41521/#/peaple/...

I would like to remove this '#', looking like this:

http://localhost:41521/peaple/

How can I solve this problem?

Related issue [Flutter_web navigation should provide a way to remove hash symbol(#)](https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/33245) — Spatz, Jan 23 '20 at 06:29

score 115 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 13 '21 at 20:24

115

You can now use a simple package and a single line of code to remove the leading hash (#) from your Flutter web app: url_strategy (full disclosure: I am the author)

Using `url_strategy`

You simply add the dependency as described here and then add the following function call to your main function:

import 'package:url_strategy/url_strategy.dart';

void main() {
  // Here we set the URL strategy for our web app.
  // It is safe to call this function when running on mobile or desktop as well.
  setPathUrlStrategy();
  runApp(MyApp());
}

Calling setPathUrlStrategy is all you need to do

The package also ensures that running the code will not crash on mobile (see below). Additionally, this will also run on stable if you build your mobile app on stable and only web on beta.

Notes

You need to make sure that you include <base href="/"> inside the <head> section of your web/index.html when using the path URL strategy.
This is added by default when creating a new Flutter app.

Furthermore, when deploying your production app, you need to make sure that every path points to your index.html. If you use tools like Firebase hosting, this is done automatically for you when configuring your app as a single page app.
Otherwise, you want to look up how to rewrite all paths to your index.html for the hosting you are using.

Essentially, you want to have a single page app, where the HTTP server serves the index.html for all paths.

The package implementation is based on the manual solution using flutter_web_plugins. The benefits of using the package are the following:

Only need to call a single function.
No need to use conditional imports (the package does it for you).
You will not get any missing implementation issues on stable (as the web feature is still on beta).

answered Jan 13 '21 at 20:24

creativecreatorormaybenot

114,516
58
291
402

4

You can redirect all of your paths to index.html by adding thnis to the "hosting" field in your firebase.json: "rewrites": [ { "source": "**", "destination": "/index.html" } ] – Code on the Rocks Aug 10 '21 at 21:53
2

By default, Flutter uses the hash (/#/) location strategy. what is benefit of hash? – Zahra Aug 22 '21 at 09:05
@cretivecreatormaybenot I'm using url_strategy and when I type in a new url the app restarts instead of just parsing it and update the shown page. Is it normal ? To test it I used this Navigator 2.0 example: https://github.com/carloshwa/flutter-example/tree/navigator_2 Many thanks – Vincenzo Nov 29 '21 at 06:03
Fantastic, thank you so much! For some reason, that '#' was really annoying me, and it was getting in the way of some specific routing I needed to do. – Scott Clements Feb 20 '22 at 17:57
Without /#/ every time you change address, the whole app restarts. With it, you just move within navigation system of the app, which is clearly faster and more efficient. It's probably not a good idea to change the default behavior. – Ashkan Sarlak Nov 18 '22 at 02:52
1

@AshkanSarlak That is simply not true. If your whole app reloads, your app or server is not configured correctly. – creativecreatorormaybenot Nov 21 '22 at 09:57
@creativecreatorormaybenot It's a simple app served by a basic nginx. So I haven't introduced anything wrong in it. – Ashkan Sarlak Nov 22 '22 at 06:29
All this package does is just export flutter_web_plugins `setUrlStrategy(PathUrlStrategy())` with some conditional imports So you might as well just use the flutter_web_plugins package – HJo Dec 01 '22 at 16:06

score 30 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 13 '20 at 15:31

30

The following answer is copied from Mouad Debbar's explanation on GitHub (see issue comment).

Here are the steps to use it once it's available:

Add <base href="/"> inside the <head> section of your web/index.html file. This will be added automatically for new projects created by flutter create. But for existing apps, the developer needs to add it manually. Add the flutter_web_plugins dependency in pubspec.yaml if it doesn't already exist:

dependencies:
  flutter_web_plugins:
    sdk: flutter

Add a lib/configure_nonweb.dart with the following content:

void configureApp() {
  // No-op.
}

Add a lib/configure_web.dart with the following content:

import 'package:flutter_web_plugins/flutter_web_plugins.dart';

void configureApp() {
  setUrlStrategy(PathUrlStrategy());
}

In lib/main.dart, do the following:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'configure_nonweb.dart' if (dart.library.html) 'configure_web.dart';

void main() {
  configureApp();
  runApp(MyApp());
}

edited Dec 13 '20 at 15:31

creativecreatorormaybenot

114,516
58
291
402

answered Nov 01 '20 at 16:15

Tarek Alabd

419
4
13

Currently it's not available on either master or stable channels. But it's tested to be working on both dev and beta channels. – Mohamed Abdou Nov 07 '20 at 11:00
1

This should really be a community wiki because it is just a copied answer. – creativecreatorormaybenot Dec 13 '20 at 15:32
I now wrote an answer with a simpler solution: https://stackoverflow.com/a/65709246/6509751 – creativecreatorormaybenot Jan 13 '21 at 20:27
1

Does this work if the base href is something else like `/app/`? – Lee Mordell Feb 16 '21 at 22:35
https://flutter.dev/docs/development/ui/navigation/url-strategies#configuring-the-url-strategy – galki Nov 15 '21 at 00:25
3

I prefer this answer because it does not rely on a package, and it's really just a few very simple changes. Relying on url_strategy package for such simple edits is a bad idea for infrastructure and long-term support reasons. – Matthew Rideout May 28 '22 at 04:46

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 12 '21 at 11:34

4

Only for Github pages hosting

This also applies to apps that aren't served from domain.com/ directly but from some path domain.com/path/.

You need to add your repo name to base href otherwise your website won't work.

<base href="/REPO_NAME/">

answered Apr 12 '21 at 11:34

Fran Maric

63
1
4

what is REPO_NAME here? the domain name? I'm not hosting in github-pages – Pedro Massango Aug 27 '23 at 18:59

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 22 '20 at 20:36

2

If your only concern is for routing, you can do something like this:

onGenerateRoute: (settings) {
    List segments = settings.name.split('/').where((x) => ! x.isEmpty).toList();
    String page = segments.length > 0 ? segments[0] : '';
    ...
  }
}

answered Jul 22 '20 at 20:36

Jhourlad Estrella

3,545
4
37
66

where to write this ? – Nehal Jaisalmeria Feb 28 '21 at 13:49
@NehalJaisalmeria inside your `MaterialApp()` widget – iqfareez Apr 25 '21 at 10:38

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 17 '21 at 08:53

add this in pubspec.yaml

dependencies:
  flutter_web_plugins:
    sdk: flutter

inside the main.dart file add the cofigureApp in to root of the app and also add this import

import 'package:flutter_web_plugins/flutter_web_plugins.dart';

void configureApp() {
  setUrlStrategy(PathUrlStrategy());
}

void main() {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  configureApp();
  runApp(MyApp());
}

restart the web app

out will be like this

http://localhost:52299/login_page

Шахзод · Answer 6 · 2022-07-09T20:15:55.430

Install in pubspec.yaml url_strategy
Write in main.dart:

import 'package:url_strategy/url_strategy.dart';

void main() {
  WidgetsFlutterBinding.ensureInitialized();
  setPathUrlStrategy();
  runApp(MyApp());
}

If you get an error when you refresh the page, then add file 404.html to the folder with index.html. Copy the entire contents of the index.html and paste it into the 404.html. For some hosts it's enough. But some host aslo requires the file ".htaccess".
You shoud create in the same folder the file ".htaccess" and write into this file:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule . /index.html [L]

This solution was recieved from this video.

yet another beta projects, based on its semver. – Xao Mar 03 '23 at 10:36 — Xao, Mar 03 '23 at 10:36

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 14 '23 at 18:35

After migration go Router to 5.0 UrlPathStrategy.path is removed

My current version goRouter 8.0.3

 dependencies:
 flutter_web_plugins:
 sdk: flutter

Instead of:

GoRouter.setUrlPathStrategy(UrlPathStrategy.path);

Replace with:

 import 'package:flutter_web_plugins/url_strategy.dart';

 void main() {
 usePathUrlStrategy();
 runApp(ExampleApp());
 }

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Apr 23 '22 at 06:22

I found most of the answers above to be a bit confusing. What ended up working for my firebase-hosted website was following this short 4-minute YouTube tutorial by Johannes Milke.

The tutorial outlines a number of options for solving the "#" problem, basically explaining some of the answers above a bit better. My final solution was to

Add url_strategy dependency as outlined in many of the answers above.
Adding base href="/"> inside the section of my index.html file
Making sure that all paths point to index.html by adding "rewrites": [ { "source": "**", "destination": "/index.html" } ] in my firebase.json.

score -1 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 19 '22 at 11:32

-1

you can also do this

String main_url = url.split('#').join();

eg. http://localhost:31265/#apply?id=1

output: http://localhost:31265/apply?id=1

answered Dec 19 '22 at 11:32

Moiz

1

what do you even mean man? provide more details – Xao Mar 03 '23 at 10:34
The post ask to remove # so u could just split the url around # and then again join it. – Moiz Mar 04 '23 at 17:46

How to remove hash (#) from URL in Flutter web

9 Answers9

Using `url_strategy`

Notes

Linked

How to remove hash (#) from URL in Flutter web

9 Answers9

Using url_strategy

Notes

Linked

Using `url_strategy`