Window.open(path, '_parent'); redirects to base route.

🐞 bug report

Affected Package

The issue is caused by package

@angular/router

Is this a regression?

Yes, the previous version in which this bug was not present was: 5

I believe this was working at some point in Angular5. I upgraded two major versions (6 and 7) and have noticed this is no longer functioning. This is causing issues within our application.

Description

A clear and concise description of the problem...

After using window.open(path, '_parent'); my page seems to temporarily load my my component/route and then immediately reboots the entire application. (Not sure if this is a browser back or what)

🔬 Minimal Reproduction

https://github.com/TheeRFG/ng-broken-routing

1. ng serve
2. Click the link to “Route B!”
3. Watch the application temporarily load “route-b works!” before rebootstrapping and starting back at “I am root!”

🌍 Your Environment

Angular Version:

$ ng version

     _                      _                 ____ _     ___
    / \   _ __   __ _ _   _| | __ _ _ __     / ___| |   |_ _|
   / △ \ | '_ \ / _` | | | | |/ _` | '__|   | |   | |    | |
  / ___ \| | | | (_| | |_| | | (_| | |      | |___| |___ | |
 /_/   \_\_| |_|\__, |\__,_|_|\__,_|_|       \____|_____|___|
                |___/
    

Angular CLI: 7.3.1
Node: 10.14.1
OS: win32 x64
Angular: 7.2.4
... animations, common, compiler, compiler-cli, core, forms
... language-service, platform-browser, platform-browser-dynamic
... router

Package                           Version
-----------------------------------------------------------
@angular-devkit/architect         0.13.1
@angular-devkit/build-angular     0.13.1
@angular-devkit/build-optimizer   0.13.1
@angular-devkit/build-webpack     0.13.1
@angular-devkit/core              7.3.1
@angular-devkit/schematics        7.3.1
@angular/cli                      7.3.1
@ngtools/webpack                  7.3.1
@schematics/angular               7.3.1
@schematics/update                0.13.1
rxjs                              6.3.3
typescript                        3.2.4
webpack                           4.29.0

Anything else relevant?

In my bigger application where I first noticed this issue, even though my root path is linked to a component my page actually sits at

<app-root ng-version="7.2.4">
    <router-outlet id="main-router-outlet"></router-outlet>
    <app-empty-navigation class="ng-star-inserted"><div></div></app-empty-navigation>
</app-root>

and subsequent initial navigations fail. Navigations after this first failed navigation work and resolve, but this is not an ideal user experience.

I realize there are better routing solutions available to Angular, but because of the legacy nature of a large portion of our application and its use of frames, this is the only way for our application to tell the parent windows they need to navigate.

[tjordanrsa]

For me, it ended not being angular router at all. It was because href was set to #. The solution is was @trotyl suggested. Apologies for not giving feedback.

[trotyl]

This behavior happens consistently even without using Angular:

https://typescript-kd86w1.stackblitz.io

When both click event handler and href exists, click handler will be executed first, then href. And an empty href value means the base path.

To disable href behavior either return false or event.preventDefault() is required, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1070760/javascript-function-in-href-vs-onclick for more information.

Angular router is completely not involved at all, any proof for this being unexpected?