'Back' browser action in Ruby on Rails

Can the 'Back' browser functionality be invoked from a Rails 'Back' link?

Use

<%= link_to 'Back', :back %>

This is specificied in the RDoc here

This generates some Javascript to navigate backward. I've just tested it, and it works.

In Rails 3 and earlier:

link_to_function "Back", "history.back()"

In Rails 4, this method has been removed. See Andreas's comment.

This is working in Rails 5.1 along with Turbolinks.

link_to 'Back', 'javascript:history.back()'

In Rails 4.2, I got it to work with this:

<a href="javascript:history.back()">Refine Search</a>

I stole this off of @cpm’s answer, except that link_to("Refine Search", :back) didn’t do the job I wanted while pasting in the generated code <a href="javascript:history.back()">Refine Search</a> did it perfectly.

You can use link_to("Hello", :back) to generate <a href="javascript:history.back()">Hello</a>.

This will work similarly as browser back button try this

<%= link_to 'Back', 'javascript:history.go(-1);' %>

Pay attention to this comment from the user rthbound! As he notes, link_to with the symbol :back does not always generate a “real” back event as if the user clicked on their browser’s Back button. It can also be a resubmit of the action that loaded the current view.

The documentation for Rails 4.2.6 says this about link_to and the :back symbol:

> Using a :back Symbol instead of an options hash will generate a link to the > referrer (a JavaScript back link will be used in place of a referrer if none > exists).

Rails <= 4.0

Using

link_to_function "Back", "history.back()"

seems to be exactly like hitting the back button in the browser. All inputted form data is still there when you get back.

If you like me do not want the behaviour of link_to "cancel", :back you could implement a helper method which either links to the records index path or show path. (i.e teams_path or team_path(@team)

module CancelFormButtonHelper
  def cancel_button(record)
    index_path = record.class.to_s.pluralize.downcase + "_path"
    path = record.persisted? ? record : eval(index_path)

    link_to "Cancel", path
  end
end

which can then be used as <%= cancel_button @team %> within a form for example.

You can use js function window.history.back()

 = link_to 'Back', onclick: "window.history.back();"