Redirect on Back

Just like redirect_to, but only if the user hits 'back'. A common use case: Prevent re-submission of a form after after user clicks 'back'. Rails 3.1 and above.

Example Scenario

User fills form and hits 'submit';
User hits 'back';
User changes a field and hits 'submit' again;
Arrrggg... a new record has been created instead of updating the existing one.

Installation (Rails 3.1 and higher)

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'redirect_on_back'

Then execute:

$ bundle

And then specify the use of the redirect_on_back javascripts in your application.js:

//= require redirect_on_back

Usage

In a controller action, choose where to navigate the users if they click 'back':

redirect_on_back_to a_safe_path

Full example:

 def create
    @user = User.new(user_params)
    if @user.save
      redirect_on_back_to edit_user_path(@user) # If user hits 'back' he'll be redirected to edit_user_path
      redirect_to @user
    else
      render :new
    end
  end

How to Disable

redirect_on_back uses a hidden form field, which is automatically added to forms. However, it's not added to forms that point to different domains, so, for instance, it won't interfere with Amazon S3 file uploads.

To manually disable it in a form, add disable_redirect_on_back: true to the data hash of that form:

   form_tag @user, data: {disable_redirect_on_back: true}

Contributing