Is it possible to follow Javascript redirect in node.js?

Question

I'm using node.js request library which can follow HTTP redirects but is there a way to follow Javascript redirect such as this?

<html>

  <head>

    <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; /subpage"/>

    <script type="text/javascript">

      window.location.href = '/subpage/';

    </script>

  </head>

  <body></body>

</html>

The only thing I can think of is to test for the

window.location.href

value in the head of the response and if true, follow it.

Is there some better solution?

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Answer 1

Using window.location.href is not the only way to do a javascript redirect, so the hack you suggest would not work in every case.

Also, if the new url is a variable (eg: window.location.url = some_variable) you will not catch it.

The most elegant way to be sure to follow any javascript redirect is to use a webdriver such as Selenium.

The advantage of this solution is that it will follow any html/javascript redirect. The disadvantage is it requires setup, and the execution of the webdriver can be slow.

Is it possible to follow Javascript redirect in node.js?

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