RE: What do I use?

From: Walden H. Leverich

Oh dog-poop.

Oh, double dog-poop!

Triple dog-poop.

I'm not talking about going out of sequence, as in page 1 to page 3,
skipping page 2. I'm talking about doing page 1, then 2, then 3, then
oops, back to 2, then 2 again, then 3. Are there times when you can't
allow that? Sure, but they're really few and far-between. Much rarer
than applications that "prevent" the back button would like.

If I'm authorizing a transaction then if I approve it, then back and
then attempt to approve it again, the app should say, "hey dummy, you
already did that." After all, I might be trying to go back 3 screens to
the list of transactions so I can select the next one to authorize.

If I let you hit the back button after authorizing a transaction, you might
just sign off thinking the transaction wasn't authorized. That's a BAD
THING. There are, in fact, LOTS of time when the back button shouldn't be
enabled. It's just that web applications are usually lighter weight than
real business applications.

It's much simpler to prevent the back button and think linearly, it's
what we've done for years. It's much more web-like to think differently.

The back button should be able to be programmatically disabled at any point.
Period. The fact that it isn't is a problem with the interface, not with
the programmer.

Joe