Unecessary call to /component/ajax/?format=json on every page

[Cococoder]

Hello ,

Joomla 3.9.12.
VirtueMart 3.6.2 10159
PHP Version 7.2.22

Browsing my access logs I noticed that component/ajax/?format=json call where systematically followed by a /component/ajax?format=json

Looking in the source code I found this line
system.keepalive":{"interval":300000,"uri":"\/component\/ajax\/?format=json"}

in <script type="application/json" class="joomla-script-options new">

I guess it should be written: system.keepalive":{"interval":300000,"uri":"\/component\/ajax?format=json"} to avoid the redirect.

I made a search for the string but only the cached page came out. Can someone assists? Also I think it should be fixed on joomla core file, can anyone confirm?

[SharkyKZ]

I have the same link but it does not perform a redirect. Do you have any other extensions installed? Any SEO extensions?

[Webdongle]

https://forumpostassistant.github.io/docs/ please

[deleted user]

This doesn't need an FPA.

It sounds like you have some kind of extension or some kind of web server configuration directive that strips trailing slashes and that is the redirect you are seeing. Identify the extension or contact your hosting provider to see if such a server-side rule exists and can be adjusted.

[Webdongle]

...
It sounds like you have some kind of extension or some kind of web server configuration directive that strips trailing slashes...

Yes and the fpa lists extensions etc.

[deleted user]

Well aware. I'm also aware of how often an FPA is posted and people spend time nit-picking over details in it unrelated to the OP's issue and completely ignoring the last PHP error (the first thing displayed) when it actually does relate to the issue. Yeah, it's a good tool for helping with deeper diagnostics, but unless it's spitting out component configurations or .htaccess file contents, this is an occasion where asking for it is overkill. Now, if the OP here wants to come back and say they have no idea what's on their site to deal with URL rewriting related issues, then sure, the FPA will help identify that.

[Cococoder]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies.

Actually I have htaccess directive that strip trailing slash for none existing directories.

#Remove trailing slash for none existing directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} /(.*)/$
RewriteRule ^ /%1 [R=301,L]

That might be the reason why I have this redirect.
Those said, I would still like to address this. Regarding plugins I am running jotcache.

[Webdongle]

... I'm also aware of how often an FPA is posted and people spend time nit-picking ...

Yes pot the kettle heard you

[Cococoder]

Unecessary trailing slash hardcoded in /component/ajax/?format=json

redirect without the trailing slash

search for the origin of the script

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[Cococoder]

More info. the call to is generated in the page header:
<script type="application/json" class="joomla-script-options new">{"csrf.token":"SomeToken","system.paths":{"root":"","base":""},"system.keepalive":{"interval":300000,"uri":"\/component\/ajax\/?format=json"}}</script> It seems to me it belongs to the joomla core but I might be mistaken.
In any case I don't see any valid reason to hardcode a trailing slash in that specific case. So my goal is to find out where this code is generated and override it with a version without trailing slash. In other words my goal is not to get the read of the redirect per se but to get the read of the trailing slash in the code, so basically I'll have "\/component\/ajax?format=json" instead of what is above. Any pointer to where is generate this script?

[Cococoder]

Well aware. I'm also aware of how often an FPA is posted and people spend time nit-picking over details in it unrelated to the OP's issue and completely ignoring the last PHP error (the first thing displayed) when it actually does relate to the issue. Yeah, it's a good tool for helping with deeper diagnostics, but unless it's spitting out component configurations or .htaccess file contents, this is an occasion where asking for it is overkill. Now, if the OP here wants to come back and say they have no idea what's on their site to deal with URL rewriting related issues, then sure, the FPA will help identify that.

Thanks, I appreciate this way of thinking and how you mind how my concern will be approached by the community. I posted the FPA in case the list of modules and plugins help.

[Cococoder]

Gone deeper in my investigation. This code is generated in libraries/src/Document/Renderer/Html/HeaderRenderer.php line 250
if (!empty($scriptOptions))
{
$buffer .= $tab . '<script type="application/json" class="joomla-script-options new">';

$prettyPrint = (JDEBUG && defined('JSON_PRETTY_PRINT') ? JSON_PRETTY_PRINT : false);
$jsonOptions = json_encode($scriptOptions, $prettyPrint);
$jsonOptions = $jsonOptions ? $jsonOptions : '{}';

$buffer .= $jsonOptions;
$buffer .= '</script>' . $lnEnd;
}
Looking for $jsonOptions you can find that $jsonOptions=$options['json_options'] in fof/hal/render/json.php line 58. That's as far as I have been so far. The hunt continues. Where are the json options stored?

[Cococoder]

I have the same link but it does not perform a redirect. Do you have any other extensions installed? Any SEO extensions?

Thanks for taking the time to check on your own website if you have the same. As I stated above I have an htaccess directive that strip the trailing slash. The question is why is there a trailing slash hardcoded. I don't think this is useful. I am stripping trailing slash as google treats URL with trailing slash and without as two distinct pages and those versions are crawled independently. I want to make sure google robots crawl budget is used optimally on my site, I stripped the trailing slash so it spend time discovering new pages instead of exploring two times the same resources.

[Cococoder]

Closing in:
Line 713 in cms/html/behavior.php
// If we are in the frontend or logged in as a user, we can use the ajax component to reduce the load
$uri = 'index.php' . (JFactory::getApplication()->isClient('site') || !JFactory::getUser()->guest ? '?option=com_ajax&format=json' : '');
// Add keepalive script options.
JFactory::getDocument()->addScriptOptions('system.keepalive', array('interval' => $refreshTime * 1000, 'uri' => JRoute::_($uri)));
I am afraid the trailing slash comes from the way the uri is formed. Instead of adding a slash at the begining of the subdirectory string it is added to the end of the string. In that case it will all boil done to modifying how JRoute operate. Joomal team, is this doable?

[Webdongle]

Was this a 3rd party install or did you download it from https://downloads.joomla.org/ ?
Try setting Protostar as default Template.
Try disabling JCHoptimize then clearing Joomla cache.

[brian]

the problem is from the htaccess !!

[Cococoder]

the problem is from the htaccess !!

I should edit the subject. The reason why I have this htaccess directive is that I had numerous pages indexed both with and without trailing slash. As my site has many pages, I chosed to remove trailing slash for none existing directories (it's a while I did this change so I don't remember the details but at the time I didn't find a better alternative). Now, I noticed this relatively small thing (I can barely call it an issue) and I'd like to fix it, but not at the expense of removing trailing slash. Changing JRoute to accomodate this htaccess directive seems legit. I don't know how hard it is technically though.