quick n dirty functions for setting/getting url hash values

urlhash.js

// function to read the url hash (the part after #), and turns it into an object for serialization
var getUrlHash = function() {
	var tmpPos = location.href.indexOf("#"), hashObj = {};
	
	if(tmpPos !== -1) {
		var hash = location.href.substring(tmpPos+1, location.href.length);
		
		// if it has multiple values (separated by an ampersand), we need to consider that
		tmpPos = hash.indexOf("&");
		if(tmpPos !== -1) {
			var hashSegments = hash.split("&");
			
			for(var i = 0; i < hashSegments.length; i++) {
				var kv = hashSegments[i].split("=");
				hashObj[kv[0]] = kv[1];
			}	
		} else {
			
			tmpPos = hash.indexOf("=");
			if(tmpPos !== -1) {
				var kv = tmpPos.split("=");
				hashObj[kv[0]] = kv[1];
			}
		}
	}
	
	return hashObj;
};

// function to set the url hash based on an object representation
var setUrlHash = function(kv) {
	var hash = [];
	
	for(k in kv) {
		hash.push(k+"="+kv[k]);
	}
	
	var urlHash = "#"+hash.join("&");
	
	// if the current location already has a hash, we need to replace it
	var hashPos = location.href.indexOf("#");
	if(hashPos !== -1) {
		location.href = location.href.substring(0, hashPos)+urlHash;
	}
	
	else {
		location.href += urlHash;
	}
};

// helper function for quickly appending/replacing values in the url hash
var appendUrlHash = function(kv) {
	var hashObj = getUrlHash();
	
	for(k in kv) {
		hashObj[k] = kv[k];
	}
	
	setUrlHash(hashObj);
};