event.location from up:location:changed is not string when using browser back/forward

[johndwells]

Bug description

I am following the recommendation for tracking pageviews by listening to up:location:changed event: https://unpoly.com/analytics

When the event is triggered from following a link, event.location is a string (e.g. /news).

However when the event is triggered from clicking on back/forward buttons, event.location is a an entire Location object.

Reproduction project

See: https://satisfying-intermediate-ankle.glitch.me/

With the following test in scripts.js:

console.log('hello!');
up.on('up:location:changed', (event) => {
  console.log(event.location);
});

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to reproduction project linked above
2. Open console log, verify "hello!" message appears
3. Click on 'Step 1: Follow this link'
4. Verify console logs "/index2.html" appears
5. Now press "back" in browser
6. Verify console logs an entire Location object

Expected behavior

I would expect it to be consistent. I believe the 2.x API always sent a string value, though we used up:layer:location:changed on 2.x. When we upgraded we found that up:layer:location:changed wasn't called when navigating the history via back/forward, so we referred to the Unpoly 3.x docs and found the analytics page recommending using up:location:changed.

As a temporary workaround we are able to reliably extract the value by doing:

up.on('up:location:changed', (event) => {
  let pathname = event.location.pathname || event.location;
  console.log(pathname);
});

Browser version

• OS: Apple 13.3.1
• Browser: Chrome 113.0.5672.92
• Unpoly Version 3.1.1

[triskweline]

Thanks for the report @johndwells !

[triskweline]

The fix has been released as part of version 3.2.1.