Really Simple History (RSH) Initial URL

I recently came across a small problem in RSH whereby on loading a page with a state in the url (e.g. localhost.com/test_page#test) would not trigger the history listener function on it’s initial load. To fix this, I needed to modify my window onload function to include a call to my history listener, as follows:

history_listener: function (newLocation, historyData) {
...
},

// Window.onload calls this
initialize_history: function () {
       	dhtmlHistory.initialize();
       	dhtmlHistory.addListener(this.history_listener.bindAsEventListener(this));

       	// Added this line to force a call to my history listener
       	this.history_listener(dhtmlHistory.getCurrentLocation());
}

This ensures that when the page is freshly loaded, the history listener is called with the contents of our initial location.

Browser History in Web Apps

Given that the back button has been around for many years, and users have grown accustomed to it’s use, it’s a shame to see so many web applications neglecting this feature. As an example, I’ll pick on Lightbox, a tool that I like, yet one that is flawed in it’s disregard for the back button. For example:

1. You navigate to a page that contains a thumbnailed image
2. You click the image, and Lightbox shows it centered in your browser, full size
3. You click back, press the back button on your mouse or whatever

Now, I realise that Lightbox has a close button in the image dialog box, but I’m not looking at the box, I’m looking at the image, and furthermore, my natural path back to the originating page is to press the back button, not to close the Lightbox. I therefore end up at the page I was on before I saw the thumbnail.

I’ve seen this with many users - the back button has been scarred into our mind, and to break it now is frivolous, and will ultimately lead to frustration, and lost users.

It’s with relief therefore, that I found Really Simple History, a JavaScript library for dealing with this exact problem - to create a JS history system that can run across many browsers, and provide developers with a little hope that our apps will no longer break the most fundamental user assumptions.

We tried to get the browser history working in Bouldr, and to an extent, we succeeded. The difference between coding something proprietary, and using an open source solution, though is very great indeed, so without doubt, we’ll be refactoring to use this library in the future.