JavaScript History Property

Implementing history in Ajax and JavaScript is seen as the challenging feature. In most programming languages, developers can rely on browsers on marking the movements of the users. By simply clicking on “Back” and “Forward”, users can access previous information of the online application. But because Ajax and JavaScript have different navigation protocol, the standard “Back” and “Forward” buttons on browsers can’t be used. There was even a time when Ajax was so popular that some developers questioned the necessity of these browser tools.

But developers have to adjust to the demand of users. They have to add history on the Ajax and JavaScript based application or else they will lose interaction of users. Of course, tools have to be created by developers to deal with history. This is where the history property is added in JavaScript.

Establishing history in JavaScript starts with command window.history. This function will allow the browser to mark a specific URL for easy access when user presses the “Back” and “Forward” button. Through this function, developers can add other functions, properties and methods that will improve user experience. Of course, the developer has to adapt to user preferences.

Properties in Windows History

There are four properties that can be implemented with JavaScript History:

• Current Property – This property extracts the current URL of the application. This becomes the basis of other properties in history.

• Previous Property – This property has two functions: first, the function can be used to mark the URL so that it can be access with a “Back” button. The second function is that the URL from this property becomes part of browser history.

• Next Property – This property can be compared to Previous Property except that it’s implemented in forward function.

• Length Property - This property is very interesting for JavaScript. This function specifies the number of elements that will be added in history. This will help in speeding up the loading of the previous webpage. Developers can add all elements but the local gadget might not be able to handle the function. On the other hand, too little elements will require faster internet connection.

Methods for History Property

Complementing the properties for history in JavaScript are the methods. But since the history is already established in the document, the methods for JavaScript are implemented in a very unique manner. The forward and back methods in JavaScript are written in this syntax:

History.go()

The data added by developers depends on the function they need. To implement a return to the previous webpage, developers should add (-1) and forwarding the webpage will require (1). Since the webpage was already visited, developers do not need to use (+1). The history will already acknowledge that it’s already on the previous webpage.

An alternative is to use the traditional coding for browsing history wherein back will have this syntax:

History.back()

The forward will have this syntax:

History.forward()

There is also a rarely used but easily implemented “Go” function wherein developers can use the syntax “history.go()”. This function will allow users to specifically target a URL of the webpage.