Run a JavaScript function from a URL

Question

I need to link to a page that uses javascript to create the appearance of different pages. Each of the links on the page I am pointing to calls a javascript function that produces the "new" page. So, if I just link to the page, I get the default configuration. But what I need to link to is a particular configuration after the js function has run.

At first I thought I would be able to append the function to the url, but apparently that functionality is not supported for security reasons (is this correct?). Is it possible to post the values?

Does anyone know how I can display the correct configuration?

Answer 1

In the general case, no, it's not possible, which is why these sort of JavaScript-only pages are an inaccessible, unusable total pain in the neck and people should stop creating them, the idiots.

If you are lucky and the site you're talking about has actually Done It Properly, then they'll have used #fragment navigation, so when you click a link it does a history-able and bookmark-able navigation, updating the URL to one with a #something at the end that you can use to navigate back there. If you're really lucky, there might even be a fallback URL for non-JavaScript browsers that you could link to. But more often all there is is a JS function, which you can't link to or invoke outside of that site, leaving you quite out of luck should you want to deep-link anything.

(Did we learn nothing from the <frame> fiasco, guys? All you trendy webmasters hacking up clever-clever swooshy jQuery-animated load()-powered multiple-pages-in-one sites are churning out rubbish that is no better than the frame-addled worst of the Netscape 3 era. Stop it. Seriously.)

Answer 2

The owner of the page could do you a favour and provide a mechanism to run functions depending on a value in the querystring.

Otherwise there may be something that can be done with ajax but it could be messy.

Answer 3

Okay, I was given the solution by a friend. It seems I should answer my own question. In fact, I felt a little silly once I saw how simple the solutions was. I just forgot how to plant "posts" in a URL. It seems the question itself was erroneous.

All I really needed to do was set some Javascript variables in a page I don't own. Solution looks something like this.

http://www.apage.com/control.aspx?var1=someVal&var2=someVal...&varn=someVal

Thanks to those who responded.