reloadWithDebugInfo does not work when the host already uses window.name

[klaascuvelier]

I am not sure how much of an edge case this is, but the reloadWithDebugInfo call relies on window.name not to be used outside of angular.

We have a script-tag in our head setting the window.name for our application, this causes the implementation for reloadWithDebugInfo not to work.

angular.js/src/Angular.js

Lines 1600 to 1638 in 19ecdb5

	var NG_ENABLE_DEBUG_INFO = /^NG_ENABLE_DEBUG_INFO!/;
	var NG_DEFER_BOOTSTRAP = /^NG_DEFER_BOOTSTRAP!/;
	if (window && NG_ENABLE_DEBUG_INFO.test(window.name)) {
	config.debugInfoEnabled = true;
	window.name = window.name.replace(NG_ENABLE_DEBUG_INFO, '');
	}
	if (window && !NG_DEFER_BOOTSTRAP.test(window.name)) {
	return doBootstrap();
	}
	window.name = window.name.replace(NG_DEFER_BOOTSTRAP, '');
	angular.resumeBootstrap = function(extraModules) {
	forEach(extraModules, function(module) {
	modules.push(module);
	});
	return doBootstrap();
	};
	if (isFunction(angular.resumeDeferredBootstrap)) {
	angular.resumeDeferredBootstrap();
	}
	}
	/**
	* @ngdoc function
	* @name angular.reloadWithDebugInfo
	* @module ng
	* @description
	* Use this function to reload the current application with debug information turned on.
	* This takes precedence over a call to `$compileProvider.debugInfoEnabled(false)`.
	*
	* See {@link ng.$compileProvider#debugInfoEnabled} for more.
	*/
	function reloadWithDebugInfo() {
	window.name = 'NG_ENABLE_DEBUG_INFO!' + window.name;
	window.location.reload();
	}

Angular version: 1.4 (but I assume this applies to 1.3 as well)
Browser: every browser
Reproduce: add a script tag with window.name = 'some name' in your page head, disable debug info in your config, confirm angular.reloadWithDebugInfo() does not work
Suggested fixes:

• maybe use a query string parameter instead? Seems to me like NG_ENABLE_DEBUG_INFO! won't be a widely used query string?
• use a cookie: if you use a cookie, you can let it expire with the session, and it would be possible to implement a reloadWithDebugInfo(false) call to reset it
• use local storage: similar as cookie, this is more persistent

[vdclouis]

+1

[superole]

angular apparently uses window.name for setting various flags not just NG_ENABLE_DEBUG_INFO!
another example is NG_DEFER_BOOTSTRAP! .

IMO this is a serious, standard-breaking bug. -A real code smell.
window.name is used to identify a browsing context, and any multi-window application that uses targeted links or window.open(), would break if this value is modified by a debug-tool or frontend-framework.