Enhancment: use window.name as fallback

[tilman]

Hey, just wanted to discuss the Idea of using window.name as a fallback instead of a global variable.

window.name would have the advantage of being persistent for the whole javascript session (in particular for a page reload; but not across tabs) and is still available even if cookies are turned off.

If you think that would be a better solution I would be happy to create a merge request.

Here is some more information about window.name:
https://www.thomasfrank.se/sessionvars.html

[astoilkov]

That's an interesting idea. I didn't know window.name worked like that. Can you help me by answering some questions?

• When window.name is lost?
  • What about the different ways to refresh the page: using the address bar, using Reload Page, using Force Reload Page?
• Is the behavior of window.name consistent between browsers?
• Do you know some libraries that use window.name for persisting data?
• Is it secure? Do iframes have access to the value?

[kolben]

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/name

Wouldn't recommend it 😄

[astoilkov]

@kolben I read the article. Thanks.

Why you wouldn't recommend it? What are the reasons? Thanks.

[kolben]

• The original article linked is 13 years old.
• The frameworks referenced in the mdn article are long gone and the article clearly says it shouldn't be used to store user data
• window.name will very soon no longer be available across tabs/ windows

[astoilkov]

@kolben Yep. That's pretty definitive. Closing this issue then. Thanks!