Programmatically disable window.location.reload?

Question

Is there a way to override default behavior of window.location.reload - making it a no-op, for debugging purposes?

Vardon

My first guess was window.location.reload = function() {} but this doesn't work, at least on Firefox. – Abbreviate

Should be possible - see Javascript - override or prevent execution – Raceway

window.location.reload = function() {} works on Firefox 4 – Baa

@YiJiang Not in my Firefox 4+: [14:27:19.242] Error: Permission denied to shadow native property – Neddy

Answer 1

The problem is that for some reason, location.reload effectively is not a writable property in Firefox and Chrome. Here's some crazy way I came up with to override it (and others) in those browsers. It uses the non-standard .__defineGetter__() method, in part to bypass the magic of window.location = "/home.html" from interfering.

var _location = location;
__defineGetter__('location', function() {
    var s = new String(_location);
    for(i in _location) (function(i) {
        s.__defineGetter__(i, function() {
            return typeof _location[i] == 'function' ? function(){} : _location[i];
        });
        s.__defineSetter__(i, function(){});
    })(i);
    return s;
});
__defineSetter__('location', function(){});

The resulting mock object should prevent any function call (including .reload) or assignment (setting .href) from actually taking effect. Alternatively, you can limit your testing to IE, Safari, and Opera, in which .reload is writable.

Eckard

Won't work in Opera 11.60: "Unhandled Error: __defineGetter__: invalid modification of non-configurable property". – Cutlerr

That solution doesn't seem so crazy, but it doesn't seem to work in Chrome 99. – Signature

Answer 2

you have to call this code in a self-calling-function unless it won't work.

(function(location){
   ...
})(window.location);

Okun

This also fails silently in Chrome – Cheiron