How to detect if the user clicked the "back" button

javascript jquery back-button jquery-events
TIMEX picture TIMEX · Jan 5, 2010 · Viewed 65.8k times · Source

When the user goes history-back-1...how do I detect that? And then, alert "the user clicked back!"

Using binds (and jQuery preferably)

Answer

EricLaw picture EricLaw · Jan 5, 2010

You generally can't (browser security restriction). You can tell if the user navigates away from the page (onbeforeunload, onunload fire) but you can't tell where they went unless you've set up your page to allow it.

HTML5 introduces the HTML5 History API; in conforming browsers, the onpopstate event will fire if the user navigates back to an earlier "page" on your site.

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