Angular4 Refresh page goes to home page

In Angular, when you refresh the page, the browser sends a new request to the server, and the default behavior is to reload the entire application, causing it to go back to the home page. This is because the Angular application is a single-page application (SPA), and the routing is handled by the client-side JavaScript code.

To prevent the Angular application from going back to the home page when you refresh the page, you can use a technique called "HashLocationStrategy" or "PathLocationStrategy." These strategies change how Angular manages its routes and URLs.

1. HashLocationStrategy: By default, Angular uses the PathLocationStrategy, which removes the hash (#) symbol from the URL. This means that when you refresh the page, the browser will try to load that specific URL on the server, which might not be a valid route on the server-side.

   To use the HashLocationStrategy, you need to import it from @angular/common and include it in the AppModule providers:

   typescriptCopy code
   import { NgModule } from '@angular/core';
   import { BrowserModule } from '@angular/platform-browser';
   import { HashLocationStrategy, LocationStrategy } from '@angular/common';
   
   import { AppComponent } from './app.component';
   
   @NgModule({
     imports: [BrowserModule],
     declarations: [AppComponent],
     providers: [{ provide: LocationStrategy, useClass: HashLocationStrategy }],
     bootstrap: [AppComponent]
   })
   export class AppModule {}
   

   With the HashLocationStrategy, Angular will use hash-based URLs, such as http://example.com/#/home, and when you refresh the page, the browser will still load the same page, and your Angular application will not go back to the home page.

2. PathLocationStrategy: If you prefer to use the PathLocationStrategy and want to handle server-side routing, you need to configure your server to redirect all requests to the main index.html file where the Angular application is loaded. This way, Angular will handle the routing on the client side, even when you refresh the page.

   For example, in Apache, you can use a .htaccess file to achieve this:

   htaccessCopy code
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteBase /
   RewriteRule ^ index.html [L]
   

   For other web servers, you'll need to configure the appropriate URL rewriting rules to redirect all requests to the index.html file.

Choose the appropriate strategy based on your application's requirements and how you want to handle the URL structure. With the HashLocationStrategy, you won't need to set up server-side redirection, and refreshing the page will keep your Angular application on the same route. With the PathLocationStrategy, you'll need to configure your server to handle client-side routing correctly.