How to keep the browser history in sync when using Ajax?

Question

I'm writing a simple photo album app using ASP.NET Ajax.
The app uses async Ajax calls to pre-load the next photo in the album, without changing the URL in the browser.

The problem is that when the user clicks the back button in the browser, the app doesn't go back to the previous photo, instead, it navigates to the home page of the application.

Is there a way to trick the browser into adding each Ajax call to the browsing history?

Answer 1

Update: There is now the HTML5 History API (pushState, popState) which deprecates the HTML4 hashchange functionality. History.js provides cross-browser compatibility and an optional hashchange fallback for HTML4 browsers.

The answer for this question will be more or less the same as my answers for these questions:

• How to show Ajax requests in URL?
• How does Gmail handle back/forward in rich JavaScript?

In summary, you'll definitely want to check out these two projects which explain the whole hashchange process and adding ajax to the mix:

• jQuery History (using hashes to manage your pages state and bind to changes to update your page).

• jQuery Ajaxy (ajax extension for jQuery History, to allow for complete ajax websites while being completely unobtrusive and gracefully degradable).