Hash Fragments in the URL


Hash fragments in the URL can be used to bookmark a particular view of an interactive visualization so that it can be shared. This is super useful, and enabling it is a reward for effectively managing the state of the visualization in your code.

For example, consider the URL: http://weather.zanarmstrong.com/#city=FARGO&metric=cloudCover&colored=1

To access the hash, assuming it’s seperated by &:

window.location.hash.split("&")

Then parse the resulting array in order to set the state of the visualization to the one specified in the URL.

To set a hash, write something like:

window.location.hash = "city=FARGO&metric=cloudCover&colored=1";

Clearly you can paste together text and variables to set this, based on whatever your current state is.