title: Predix UI Seed app - remove hash from url
body: <p>I'm using the <a href="https://github.com/PredixDev/predix-seed" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Predix UI seed</a> and I'm trying to remove the <strong>#</strong> from the URL, so that </p>
  
  <pre><code>http://localhost:5000/#/dash
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>becomes </p>
  
  <pre><code>http://localhost:5000/dash
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>What's the best way to do this?</p>
  
  <p>The <a href="https://github.com/PredixDev/predix-seed/blob/master/public/elements/seed-app/seed-app.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">seed-app.html</a> page, which is where I thought I could configure the URL structure, has the following key elements</p>
  
  <pre><code>...
  &lt;!-- app route --&gt;
  &lt;link rel="import" href="../../bower_components/app-route/app-location.html"&gt;
  &lt;link rel="import" href="../../bower_components/app-route/app-route.html"&gt;
  ...
  &lt;!-- px components --&gt;
  &lt;link rel="import" href="../../bower_components/px-app-nav/px-app-nav.html"&gt;
  &lt;link rel="import" href="../../bower_components/px-view/px-view.html"&gt;
  
  &lt;!-- app-location captures url and assigns _route value --&gt;
            &lt;app-location
              id="carbonLocation"
              route="{{_route}}"
              use-hash-as-path&gt;
            &lt;/app-location&gt;
  
            &lt;!-- /dashboards route and view --&gt;
            &lt;app-route
              route="[[_route]]"
              pattern="/dashboards"
              active="{{_dashboardsActive}}"&gt;
            &lt;/app-route&gt;
  ...
   &lt;script&gt;
      Polymer({
        is: 'seed-app',
        properties: {
          routesActive: {
            type: Boolean,
            value: false
          },
  ...
   // Sets app default base URL for client-side routing
          pathPrefix: {
            type: String,
            value: '#'
          }
        },
        ready: function(){
          this._checkForDefaultRoute();
        },
        _checkForDefaultRoute: function() {
          // set default route to /dashboards
          var l = window.location;
          if((l.hash === "#/" || l.hash === "") &amp;&amp; l.pathname === "/") {
            l.hash = "/dashboards";
          }
        }
      });
    &lt;/script&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I removed the pathPrefix </p>
  
  <pre><code>pathPrefix: {
     type: String,
     value: ''
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and changed the _checkForDefaultRoute function like so</p>
  
  <pre><code>_checkForDefaultRoute: function() {
      // set default route to /runtime
      var l = window.location;
      if((l.hash==="") &amp;&amp; l.pathname==="/"){
        l.pathname="/login";
      }
    }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The result is that I still need to use # as a prefix to reach the pages.</p>