Option to disable URL rewriting

[A. Jesse Jiryu Davis]

Hello! I want a way to prevent the proxy from adding "https://via.hypothes.is" to URLs within documents.

Background: I started using Hypothesis as part of my workflow for reading and annotating research papers. I made a list of article URLs in a Google Doc and prefixed them all with "https://via.hypothes.is" so I could open them in Chrome on my iPad with the Hypothesis client enabled. This is necessary since the iPad doesn't permit the Hypothesis Chrome extension, and I want to read on my iPad. My system works well, except in this scenario:

• My Google Doc links to "https://via.hypothes.is/URL-A".
• The page on URL-A links to URL-B, which is rewritten to "https://via.hypothes.is/URL-B".
• The page on URL-B is not readable with the Hypothesis client enabled on my iPad. For example, if URL-B requires cookies.

I want some way, when I reach URL-B on my iPad, to escape from Hypothesis. I see two options:

1. An option to prevent link rewriting. Perhaps we could introduce URL parameters like "https://via.hypothes.is/?rewriteLinks=false&url=URL-B", as a supported alternative to the proxy's current URL scheme. I'd put such URLs in my Google Doc to avoid getting trapped in Hypothesis when reading papers on my iPad.
2. An escape button in the Hypothesis client UI that I could tap, while viewing the page in Chrome on my iPad, to reload the page without the Hypothesis client.

I'm good at Python and I can hack my way around Javascript, I could attempt a PR for either of these ideas, or for some alternative you all propose.

Thanks!

Jesse

[Katelyn Lemay]

Hi Jesse,

Forgive me if this is painfully obvious or if you're already doing this, but couldn't you remove "https://via.hypothes.is/" from the address in the URL bar and reload the page to "escape" from Hypothesis? 

This is not to say that your suggestion isn't valid— I can think of plenty of reasons why someone might want to prevent link rewriting— just trying to offer an immediate workaround in case it hadn't already occurred to you.

Best,

Katelyn Lemay

Product Manager & Hypothesis

[A. Jesse Jiryu Davis]

Thanks! Yes I can do that, although it’s pretty inconvenient on my iPad. First, because the iOS keyboard is not well suited to editing in the address bar. Second, because some sites are very badly designed: if they can’t operate without cookies they redirect to a new page like “site.com/error.html”, which means the address bar no longer displays my intended URL. This makes it even harder to work around on the iPad. For all these reasons I’d like to discuss contributing a better solution.