Changing hash to query string

Question

We are using SXA in one of our projects. We are currently facing an issue with default search url pattern being used by SXA.

SXA search url by default is using '#' in search url. Sample below

<<siteurl>>/search#q=test&o=Title,Ascending

Is there a way to change to "?" similar to content search in a non SXA implementation.

Issue with # is that GA is not able to identify it correctly. We need to modify it to use "?". EX:

<<siteurl>>/search?q=test&o=Title,Ascending

Is this possible OOTB or needs customization?

Answer 1

No, it's not possible at the moment. SXA is using Backbone.js to handle search front-end logic and it's default Backbone.js behaviour to use '#'. Abstracting from SXA it's not an easy task but there are some possibilities like usage of PushState.

We have already discussed this in SXA team but because of complexity this change (replacing '#' with '?') was postponed.