Gatsby: docs: add info about location.href

[muescha]

Summary

• add section about location.href is not available in SSR

Motivation

some mistakes are coming from using location.href in server side rendering - but there is no place in docs where is a hint about this

-const href = location.href
+const href = `${siteUrl}${pathname}`

References

https://css-tricks.com/how-to-the-get-current-page-url-in-gatsby/#article-header-id-4

Steps to resolve this issue

Docs

maybe placing infos here:

• https://www.gatsbyjs.org/docs/troubleshooting-common-errors/
• https://www.gatsbyjs.org/docs/location-data-from-props/

Draft the doc

• [ ] Write the doc, following the format listed in these resources:
  
  
  
  • Overview on contributing to documentation
  
  
  • Docs Templates
  
  
  • Example of a similar article
  
  
• [ ] Add the article to the docs sidebar under the [parent doc] section.

Open a pull request

• [ ] Open a pull request with your work including the words "closes #[this issue's number]" in the pull request description

[pieh]

On top of documention, we can make trying to access location.href to throw error in code (which would contain link to appropriate docs. Alternatively we could maybe construct .href for SSR? But I feel like constructing it ourselves might just hide some problems and introduce even more problems (subtle, and hard to debug)

[madeleineostoja]

Also ran into this, using location.href for meta tags, which have to be SSRd. I think Gatsby should:

• Document what's available on location in SSR/buildtime
• Error if trying to access location.href when it's not available
• Document using location.pathname and the site's canonical URL instead

I don't think Gatsby should try and construct location.href in SSR envs. It's pretty trivial to do yourself, and far less opaque. Just needs to be documented, and not silently fail.

[imrishabh18]

Can i work on this documentation ?

[marcysutton]

Sure @imrishabh18, we would love your contribution!

[imrishabh18]

@marcysutton Hey, can you please help me what should i write in the docs ?

[github-actions[bot]]

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

We get a lot of issues, so we currently close issues after 30 days of inactivity. It’s been at least 20 days since the last update here.
If we missed this issue or if you want to keep it open, please reply here. You can also add the label "not stale" to keep this issue open!
As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks for being a part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜

[madeleineostoja]

Not stale, still needs a fix AFAIK

[github-actions[bot]]

Hiya!

This issue has gone quiet. Spooky quiet. 👻

We get a lot of issues, so we currently close issues after 30 days of inactivity. It’s been at least 20 days since the last update here.
If we missed this issue or if you want to keep it open, please reply here. You can also add the label "not stale" to keep this issue open!
As a friendly reminder: the best way to see this issue, or any other, fixed is to open a Pull Request. Check out gatsby.dev/contribute for more information about opening PRs, triaging issues, and contributing!

Thanks for being a part of the Gatsby community! 💪💜

[madeleineostoja]

Still not stale

[ehrencrona]

To provide an error message in this situation, there needs to be a change to reach/router. I've submitted an issue and a PR on reach that should fix it.