5.9.7 - Browser BACK Button - Unexpected Behavior per Confluence Link?
Asked by Stephen Kairys:

**Confluence 5.9.7 - Win10** **- Chrome**

Does Confluence not properly support my browser's BACK button when I click on a link to an anchor? i ask b/c of the following behavior. To the best of my knowledge the following occurred:

1) Made a change to the page.  
2) Saved.  
3) Scrolled down to a portion of the doc containing a link. Call this place "X".  
4) I clicked on a link to an anchor.  
5) I was taken to the correct place on the page.  
6) I clicked the BACK button.  
**7) Instead of being taken back to X it appears I was taken back into EDIT mode.**

8) I saved the page.  
9) A warning came up, saying that the changes could not be merged. It stated that various types of modifications (changes, formatting changes, and deletions) would be highlighted in different colors.  
10) When I glanced through the doc, I did not see any such highlighting.  
11) I clicked the *Overwrite* (not *Save* ) button in the lower right.  
**12) My most recent change was lost.** ![sad](/html/@C495B4504065515364EB1894F812B34C/images/emoticons/sad.png "sad")

I see two issues:

* Per Step **7**: The BACK button should take me to the previous place in the doc, and certainly not back into edit mode, which is dangerous, as is evident by my second bullet point below.
* Per Steps **9** - **12**: Behavior that ultimately lost changes.

Has anyone seen the above behavior? Does it sound like a bug?

Thanks,

Steve


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: On point 7, it's because you have not left the page - the browser is not recognising the anchor as a new url, it's stayed on the same page. The last change of url was from Edit mode to View, so the back button picks up the previous url - the edit page.

9-12 is a consequence of 7 - your changes are staying in the session when the browser lands you in the wrong place.   

There's not actually a lot you can do about this - Confluence can't tell your browser that a standard anchor link is to be treated as a new page.

comments: author: Stephen Kairys
body: Nic,

OK, I get it. But, why would going back to the EDIT mode instance of my page not contain my latest changes?

Anyhow, could the above be considered a bug/feature request? It's intuitive to anyone who uses browsers that BACK should take you back to the previous location on a page, right?

Thanks,

Steve


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: It's the data in the session information causing the edit issues.

\>It's intuitive to anyone who uses browsers that BACK should take you back to the previous location on a page, right?

Yes, but the previous location as the browser sees it is the edit page. Because you're on the same page as the anchor.

\>Anyhow, could the above be considered a bug/feature request?

Absolutely, but it's not something that Confluence can do - it would be a feature request for the browsers to treat anchor links as proper link history.


author: Stephen Kairys
body: Thanks, Nic.

OK, if we concede browsers can't treat Anchors in the manner I wish, could Confluence add its own "back" button? MS Word has the ability to go back and forward (per hyperlinks within the doc) via its own buttons. (I think they live its Web Toolbar, but don't quote me on that terminology. :smile: )

Also, please clarify:

\>\>It's the data in the session information causing the edit issues.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: I'm sure that could be done in the app - head over to <https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/conf> to raise it!


author: Stephen Kairys
body: Thank you. Will do when I get a chance.

Finally:

Please clarify:

\>\>It's the data in the session information causing the edit issues.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Yes, sorry, that's a bit vague - your browsing session contains a load of information from the page and what you did with it, and when you click "back", it's keeping it. Confluence presents it with a different page to what was there last time (because your edits have been saved) and that clashes with the information the browser has.


author: Stephen Kairys
body: Hmm...you would think Confluence would know enough that the "Steve" that went to that page via the BACK button was the same "Steve" that made the changes. :smile:

Anyhow, you've answered what I need to no. Thank you so much for staying engaged with my persistent questions. :smile: Have a great day!


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Yes, true, but there is also the problem that the page presented before is not the same page after you commit the changes!


author: Stephen Kairys
body: Understood. :smile:


author: Matthew Lyon
body: I find the same behaviour is occurring on JIRA when navigating between stories and sub tasks - no back button history.

However there IS a way to add history to the browser through javascript and considering the amount of javascript on each Atlassian page it should be relatively trivial.


author: Stephen Kairys
body: As I may have hinted at before, would be cool if Confluence could add its own "back" button for anchors; however, such a suggestion comes with a huge caveat.

While we all (in this thread) understand the difference between an anchor "link" and a normal web link, those who read our Confluence content won't "drill down" that far. To them, a link is a link ,and it's intuitive to hit the BACK button to return to where you were before.

Thanks.


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