I'm using an iframe to display content that has links. When the user clicks around in the iFrame and hits "back," it goes back in the iFrame. This behavior is OK. However, once they're back to the first page of the iFrame and they hit "back" again, the entire window is taken back to the previous page. This is unwanted.
To prevent this behavior, I've put a fake "back" button within the iFrame. (In most cases this is bad UI, in this case, it works well). I'd like this fake back button to only go back if the previous page is the iFrame's page -- not the entire page. When they hit the fake back button in the iFrame, it should only move that iFrame back, nothing else. Is there a way to do this? Does an iFrame get its own history object?
Something that might be of benefit: the domain of the iFrame and the main window can be assumed to be distinct. So, if it's possible to read the "global" history object, I can check to see if the previous page was mine by checking to see if the domain is mine. If the domain is not mine, the fake back button will be hidden or not do anything.
Help greatly appreciated, and happy holidays!
document.location.href = document.referrer;
You should be able to use the javascript history object to push the user back; but you won't be able to stop it when the iframe-clicking runs out and the main page wants to go back. And you can't stop it because that's intentionally locked down pretty well in most browsers to prevent people from messing around with it maliciously.
You could write your own history tracking code and have the back button pop items off that stack, stopping when the stack is empty...
If you're using some complicated nesting of links - perhaps some javascript-based tree menu? That way the iframe never has a page refresh?
Without having an example, I have to say your design seems like poor UI... when I hit back, I don't want the navigation to change; I want to go back to whatever page I was just on.
Related
I have a question which I haven't been able to find the answer for. I hope you can help me.
I am about to build a simple website, containing text and hyperlinks. I want the site to have the same adress no matter which hyperlink is clicked. For example, if my website is www.website.com - when one clicks a hyperlink, the content of the whole page should change, but the adress should still be www.website.com, instead of www.website.com/hyperlink.html for example. In other words, I want to disable people to use the "back" button to return to an earlier page, and prevent them from navigating the page by writing in the adress bar. They should experience a single page, but still be able to navigate through a lot of changing content through links - which means that if they click the "back"-button, they will be navigated away from the website, and if they refresh the page, it will go back to 'index'. Can you point me in the right direction to which methods might be useful here? Earlier, I would have done it in Flash, and embedded the flash-construction into the website, but as far as I have heard, Flash is not the best solution anymore?
Thanks in advance.
First of all, that is not the best idea for SEO.
But that puts aside, you should use javascript to make AJAX call and alter the partial part of your page with the response.
So basically, what you will do is from your home page, capture all link clicked event, and process the request through an AJAX call, and display the result of that call on the same page.
That allow you to refresh a list of item, or a menu, or the entire page if you want.
Since it will be AJAX call, the user won't see any difference in the URL.
A site that links to mine keeps my site in a frame, so I added the following JavaScript to my page:
if (window.top.location != window.location) {
window.top.location = window.location
}
Now if I get to my site via the offending site, my site successfully breaks out of the frame. But the back button breaks! The back button sends the user to the framed version of my site, which immediately breaks out again, returning him to where he was trying to leave! Is there a simple way to fix this?
window.top.location.replace(window.location);
The replace method is specifically for this purpose. It replaces the current item in the history state with the new destination so that the back button won't go through the destination you don't want.
jfriend00's answer is indeed correct. Using the window.location.replace method will work without affecting the back button.
However, I'd just like to note that whenever you want to stop a page from being framed, you should do more than just that! There are a couple methods of preventing a simple script like that from breaking out of the frame, which work in many modern browsers. Perhaps you can disable the page, display a message with a link to the full page, something like that. You could also use the X-Frame-Options response header that tells the browser not to display the page in a frame. If you don't take some of these measures, your site could be clickjacked.
Another solution is to open your site in a new window leaving a friendly message in the iframed site:
if (parent.frames.length)
{ window.open("mySite.htm", "MySite");
location.href= "framedMessage.htm";
}
Where framedMessage.htm contains some friendly/warning message.
I have a page where navigation is handled by hiding and showing preloaded divs when users click on links. But, the users think they've actually changed pages, so they click on their browser's "back" button trying to go back to the div that was previously hidden. But of course, they go back to the page from which they came.
What's the best way to handle this? 90% of the traffic is from a login page. Should I just sandwich a redirect page in between the two? How is this done? Can I just change the browser's back button behavior?
If you are already using jQuery, why not simply add a history manager like jq-bbq or the hashchange or history manager? (Or, if you want to really go all out, switch to a MVC JavaScript framework like Sammy.) That way, the back button will work as the user expects, rather than hacking around their expectations by blocking the back button or throwing in redirects. (Unless you have a good reason to, of course :-) )
If you use a browser history plugin like the jQuery UI one you end up changing the history so that the back button doesn't actually unload the page.
http://yoursite.com
-> User clicks something
-> new address bar reads http://yoursite.com/#/something
because of the hash mark when user goes back it goes back to http://yoursite.com which should inturn fire your show previous div function
read more about the available history manager plugins available for jQuery. There are quite a few. Most if not all provide available callback functions that you can specify.
On change of the state of your page, write a unique set of parameters to the hash of your URL. You can change this via JS without causing the page to reload.
Set a timer on the page that checks the current location hash repeatedly, and if it changes (i.e. the user presses the Back button) then update the state of your page to match the URL.
I have this scheme working to great effect in a local application.
The jQuery Address library is another great alternative.
http://www.asual.com/jquery/address/
You can set the URL for different application states, and get the URL 'parameters' when the page reloads.
Two ideas:
1) onbeforeunload. Ask the user if they want to really go back.
2) Sandwidch a redirect page. Login -> redirect -> your page. A single back click would take the user to your redirect page.
The second is kind of a pain in the neck for people who know what they're doing though. I think the Back button (and all standard navigational elements) should be messed with as little as possible.
I would go with onbeforeunload:
function sure()
{
event.returnValue = "sure?";
}
...
<BODY onbeforeunload="sure()">
I am trying a new functionality for my web site. I want to do simple navigation by hiding/showing <div> elements.
For example, when a user clicks a "details" button on some product, I want to hide the main <div> and show the <div> containing the details for the product.
The problem is that to go back to the previous "page", I have to undo all the display/visibility style changes, which is ok if the user clicks the "close" button in the newly opened <div>. But most users will hit the BACK button.
Is there a way to make the BACK button go back to the previous "state" of the page i.e., undo the visibility/display changes?
Thanks.
Yes. What you're looking for is called AJAX browser history.
There are a few open implementations out there, like RSH as well as plugins/modules for frameworks like jQuery and YUI.
to answer the question of your title (that's what I was looking for)
Using the BACK button to revert to the previous state of the page
and from the link from #reach4thelasers's answer, you have to set up a timer and check again and again the current anchor:
//On load page, init the timer which check if the there are anchor changes each 300 ms
$().ready(function(){
setInterval("checkAnchor()", 300);
});
because there's no Javascript callback triggered when the BACK button is pressed and only the anchor is changed ...
--
by the way, the pattern you're talking about is now known as Single Page Interface !
You need to add an anchor to the URL whenever a change is made
www.site.com/page.html#anchor1
This will allow the browser to maintain the pages in its history. I implemented it in my current site after following this tutorial, which works great and gives you a good understanding of what you need to do:
http://yensdesign.com/2008/11/creating-ajax-websites-based-on-anchor-navigation/
Your example in the comments won't work, because it works like this:
Page Loaded
Page Changed, Add Anchor to URL (back button takes you back to back to 1)
Page Changed, Anchor Changed (back button button takes you back to 2)
Page Changed, Anchor Changed (back button button takes you back to 3)
.... and so on and so on..
If there is, it sounds like a pretty evil thing to do from a UX perspective. Why don't you design a "back" button into your application, and use design to make it obvious to the user that they should use your application's back button instead of the browser.
By "use design," I mean make your application look like a self-sufficient user interface inside of the browser, so the user's eye stays within your page, and not up on the browser chrome, when they are looking for controls to interact with your app.
You can do this with anchors, which is how it's done in a lot of flash applications, or other apps that don't go from page to page. Facebook uses this technique pretty liberally. Each time the user clicks on a link that should go in their history, change the anchor on the page.
So say my home page link is:
http://www.mysite.com/#homepage
For the link that works your javascript magic, do this:
My Other Page
This will send the user to http://www.mysite.com/#otherpage where clicking the back button will go back to http://www.mysite.com/#homepage. Then you just have to read the anchors with
window.location.hash
to figure out which page you're supposed to be on.
Take a look to this tutorial based on ItsNat a Java web framework focused on Single Page Interface web sites
How do I insert an entry into browsing history so back button goes to different page 1st click then original page on 2nd click?
So if you need a good explanation of what I want done, go to:
https://secure.exitjunction.com/howitworks.jsp
I just need a script that will allow me to insert an entry in the browsing history so when back button is hit, the user will be taken to my special page.
Here is a link to a jQuery Plugin:
jQuery Plugin
You can't directly manipulate the browsing history.
Such a feature would be seen as a security hole (and it would be), so I doubt that any browsers would ever implement it.
You might be able to hack around it however by doing something like this:
NOTE: This entirely hinges around the assumption that the referrer will get changed by the back button. I don't think this actually happens, so it more than likely won't work, but hey.
You have two pages, PageA and PageB.
The user hits PageA
The page (on the client, using javascript) checks the HTTP referrer, and if it is not PageB, then it immediately redirects the user to PageB.
Now that you're on PageB, if the user clicks the back button, it will go back to PageA.
PageA will check the referrer, it willmay be PageB, so there is no redirect.