How do I clear web browser navigation history from code from web app (ASP MVC .NET CORE)

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Hello,

When I right-click the navigate back arrow in my web browser, I can see a list of previous URLs.

Is there a way to clear that history from code in a web app?

All the best.

What I have tried:

Searched all over the Internet, and except for some JavaScript code that is not recommended, I did not find any possible solution.

Posted 29-Mar-24 23:41pm

Perić Željko

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3 solutions

Solution 2

To directly answer the question of a "web app", no, you cannot touch the browser, or any objects in it, like navigation history, from your server-side code.

Grant has given you the only options you have from non-privileged code, which does not clear the history the way you want. Doing so would be a security risk, believe it or not.

Posted 30-Mar-24 8:38am

Dave Kreskowiak

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Perić Željko 31-Mar-24 4:47am

Thanks

Solution 3

If you want to annoy users, come up with a way to prevent them from being able to go back from your site. There is a way that you could, sort of, achieve this which is to open a new browser tab when you navigate into your site. Your users will hate it though.

Posted 30-Mar-24 22:35pm

Pete O'Hanlon

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Perić Željko 31-Mar-24 4:47am

Thanks

Pete O'Hanlon 31-Mar-24 5:03am

You are most welcome.

Richard Deeming 3-Apr-24 4:54am

The most common annoying one I see is loading a page which then immediately redirects to the real page. Click the back button, and you're immediately redirected to the same page. You have to use the drop-down menu, which many users don't know about, to actually navigate back to the previous page/site.

It's the sort of behaviour that will result in the site ending up in the "dark patterns" hall of shame.

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Graeme_Grant · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-30T00:03:00

Solution 1

I did a quick Google Search: js clear navigation history - Google Search[^]

Found the following answer: Window: history property - Web APIs | MDN[^]

Quote:
For security reasons the History object doesn't allow the non-privileged code to access the URLs of other pages in the session history, but it does allow it to navigate the session history.

There is no way to clear the session history or to disable the back/forward navigation from unprivileged code. The closest available solution is the location.replace() method, which replaces the current item of the session history with the provided URL.

Posted 30-Mar-24 0:03am

Graeme_Grant

Comments

Perić Željko 30-Mar-24 6:40am

Solution proposed in the article at second URL is only for Mozilla.
Thanks for effort finding solution.

Perić Željko 30-Mar-24 6:43am

Related to first URL:
You cannot remove the entire back button history. All you can do is replace the last entry with the next page, using window.location.replace('url');
I have already checked that. but I was interested is there a way to do it not by using JavaScript, but for example some C# code...

All other solutions are almost the same and relates to using JavaScript that is not recommended.

Graeme_Grant 30-Mar-24 6:51am

Yes, as per the posted quoted text above from the link provided.