Here I have taken Adil Malik's answer and fixed the 3 issues I identified with it.
/**
* Adds or updates a URL parameter.
*
* @param {string} url the URL to modify
* @param {string} param the name of the parameter
* @param {string} paramVal the new value for the parameter
* @return {string} the updated URL
*/
self.setParameter = function (url, param, paramVal){
// http://stackoverflow.com/a/10997390/2391566
var parts = url.split('?');
var baseUrl = parts[0];
var oldQueryString = parts[1];
var newParameters = [];
if (oldQueryString) {
var oldParameters = oldQueryString.split('&');
for (var i = 0; i < oldParameters.length; i++) {
if(oldParameters[i].split('=')[0] != param) {
newParameters.push(oldParameters[i]);
}
}
}
if (paramVal !== '' && paramVal !== null && typeof paramVal !== 'undefined') {
newParameters.push(param + '=' + encodeURI(paramVal));
}
if (newParameters.length > 0) {
return baseUrl + '?' + newParameters.join('&');
} else {
return baseUrl;
}
}