Removing the hashtag from AngularJS urls (# symbol)

Is it possible to remove the # symbol from angular.js urls?

I still want to be able to use the browsers back button etc when i change the view and will update the url with params, but I don't want the # symbol.

The tutorial routprovider is declared as follows

angular.module('phonecat', []).
  config(['$routeProvider', function($routeProvider) {
  $routeProvider.
  when('/phones', {templateUrl: 'partials/phone-list.html',   controller: PhoneListCtrl}).
  when('/phones/:phoneId', {templateUrl: 'partials/phone-detail.html', controller: PhoneDetailCtrl}).
  otherwise({redirectTo: '/phones'});
}]);

can I edit this to have the same functionality without the #?

Yes, you should configure $locationProvider and set html5Mode to true:

angular.module('phonecat', []).
  config(['$routeProvider', '$locationProvider', function($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {

    $routeProvider.
      when('/phones', {templateUrl: 'partials/phone-list.html',   controller: PhoneListCtrl}).
      when('/phones/:phoneId', {templateUrl: 'partials/phone-detail.html', controller: PhoneDetailCtrl}).
      otherwise({redirectTo: '/phones'});

    $locationProvider.html5Mode(true);

  }]);

Be sure to check browser support for the html5 history API:

  if(window.history && window.history.pushState){
    $locationProvider.html5Mode(true);
  }

To remove the Hash tag for a pretty URL and also for your code to work after minification you need to structure your code like the example below:

jobApp.config(['$routeProvider','$locationProvider',
    function($routeProvider, $locationProvider) {
        $routeProvider.
            when('/', {
                templateUrl: 'views/job-list.html',
                controller: 'JobListController'
            }).
            when('/menus', {
                templateUrl: 'views/job-list.html',
                controller: 'JobListController'
            }).
            when('/menus/:id', {
                templateUrl: 'views/job-detail.html',
                controller: 'JobDetailController'
            });

         //you can include a fallback by  including .otherwise({
          //redirectTo: '/jobs'
        //});


        //check browser support
        if(window.history && window.history.pushState){
            //$locationProvider.html5Mode(true); will cause an error $location in HTML5 mode requires a  tag to be present! Unless you set baseUrl tag after head tag like so: <head> <base href="/">

         // to know more about setting base URL visit: https://docs.angularjs.org/error/$location/nobase

         // if you don't wish to set base URL then use this
         $locationProvider.html5Mode({
                 enabled: true,
                 requireBase: false
          });
        }
    }]);

I write out a rule in web.config after $locationProvider.html5Mode(true) is set in app.js.

Hope, helps someone out.

  <system.webServer>
    <rewrite>
      <rules>
        <rule name="AngularJS" stopProcessing="true">
          <match url=".*" />
          <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
            <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
            <add input="{REQUEST_URI}" pattern="^/(api)" negate="true" />
          </conditions>
          <action type="Rewrite" url="/" />
        </rule>
      </rules>
    </rewrite>
  </system.webServer>

In my index.html I added this to <head>

<base href="/">

Don't forget to install url rewriter for iis on server.

Also if you use Web Api and IIS, this match url will not work out, as it will change your api calls. So add third input(third line of condition) and give out a pattern that will exclude calls from www.yourdomain.com/api

My solution is create .htaccess and use #Sorian code.. without .htaccess I failed to remove #

RewriteEngine   On
RewriteBase     /
RewriteCond     %{REQUEST_URI} !^(/index\.php|/img|/js|/css|/robots\.txt|/favicon\.ico)
RewriteCond     %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond     %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule     .               /index.html              [L]

You can tweak the html5mode but that is only functional for links included in html anchors of your page and how the url looks like in the browser address bar. Attempting to request a subpage without the hashtag (with or without html5mode) from anywhere outside the page will result in a 404 error. For example, the following CURL request will result in a page not found error, irrespective of html5mode:

$ curl http://foo.bar/phones

although the following will return the root/home page:

$ curl http://foo.bar/#/phones

The reason for this is that anything after the hashtag is stripped off before the request arrives at the server. So a request for http://foo.bar/#/portfolio arrives at the server as a request for http://foo.bar. The server will respond with a 200 OK response (presumably) for http://foo.bar and the agent/client will process the rest.

So in cases that you want to share a url with others, you have no option but to include the hashtag.