Disabling Back button on the browser [closed]

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/87422

  •  01-07-2019
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Question

I am writing an application that if the user hits back, it may resend the same information and mess up the flow and integrity of data. How do I disable it for users who are with and without javascript on?

Was it helpful?

Solution

It's not possible, sadly. However, consider your applications navigation model. Are you using Post/Redirect/Get PRG Model? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post/Redirect/Get?

This model is more back button friendly than the Postback model.

OTHER TIPS

You shouldn't.

You could attach some script to the onbeforeunload event of a page and confirm with the user that's what they want to do; and you can go a bit further and try to disable it but of course that will only work for users who have javascript turned on. Instead look at rewriting the app so you don't commit transactions on each page submit, but only at the end of the process.

I strongly urge you to go to heroic lengths to prevent breaking the back button, it is a sure fire way to alienate your users and even made it to No.1 on Jacob Neilsen's Top 10 Web Design Mistakes in 1999.

Perhaps you could consider rather asking the question: "How to avoid breaking the back button for <insert your scenario here>?"

If Scott's answer hits close to the mark, consider changing your flow to the PRG model. If it's something else, then give a bit more detail and see how we can help.

I came up with a little hack that disables the back button using JavaScript. I checked it on chrome 10, firefox 3.6 and IE9:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<title>Untitled Page</title>
<script type = "text/javascript" >
function changeHashOnLoad() {
     window.location.href += "#";
     setTimeout("changeHashAgain()", "50"); 
}

function changeHashAgain() {
  window.location.href += "1";
}

var storedHash = window.location.hash;
window.setInterval(function () {
    if (window.location.hash != storedHash) {
         window.location.hash = storedHash;
    }
}, 50);


</script>
</head>
<body onload="changeHashOnLoad(); ">
Try to hit back!
</body>
</html>

Best option is not to depend on postbacks to control flow, however if you are stuck with it (for now)

you may use something like this:

  Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);
  Response.Cache.SetExpires(Now.AddSeconds(-1));
  Response.Cache.SetNoStore();
  Response.AppendHeader("Pragma", "no-cache");

Soon you will find that it will not work on all browsers, but then you may introduce a check in your code like:

 if (Page.IsPostBack)
 {
        if (pageIsExpired()){
           Response.Redirect("/Some_error_page.htm");
        }
        else {
           var now = Now;
           Session("TimeStamp") = now.ToString();
           ViewState("TimeStamp") = now.ToString();
        }

  private boolean pageIsExpired()
  {
     if (Session("TimeStamp") == null || ViewState("TimeStamp") == null)
        return false;

     if (Session("TimeStamp") == ViewState("TimeStamp"))
        return true;

        return false;
  }

That will solve problem to some extend, Code not checked -- only for examples purposes..

It is possible to disable back button in all major browser. It just uses hash values to disable the back button completely. Just put these 5 lines of code in your page

 <script>
window.location.hash="no-back-button";
window.location.hash="Again-no-back-button";//for google chrome
window.onhashchange=function(){window.location.hash="no-back-button";}
</script>

Detailed description

Here's a previous post on it: Prevent Use of the Back Button (in IE)

Whatever you come up with to disable the back button might not stop the back button in future browsers.

If its late in the development cycle I suggest you try some suggestions above but when you get time you should structure your flow so that the back button does not interfere with the logic of your site, it simply takes the user back to the previous page like they expect it to do.

It is true, proper validation should be added to make sure duplicate data doesn't mess things up. However, as in my case, I don't full control of the data since I'm using some third party API after my form. So I used this

history.go(+1);

This will send user forward to the "receipt" which is supposed to come after "payment" page if they try to go back to "payment" page (just giving a payment for example). Use sparingly, though

You could post the data on each form to a _NEW window. This will disable the back button on each window, but without javascript it might be difficult to force the old one closed.

4 Guys from Rolla wrote this article on disabling the back button a long time ago (in a galaxy far far away): http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/111500-1.shtml

I was able to accomplish this by using:

 Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.MinValue);
 Response.Cache.SetNoStore();

When I used Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache); it prevented me from downloading office files.

Find below link

Disable browser back button functionality using JavaScript in asp.net | ASP.Net disable browser back button (using javascript)

http://www.aspdotnet-suresh.com/2011/11/disable-browser-back-button.html

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