History.Stop a page entering the stack

[Anon]

When I use the browser back button to go back I get this message sometimes....

Warning: Page has Expired The page you requested was created using information you submitted in a form. This page is no longer available. As a security precaution, Internet Explorer does not automatically resubmit your information for you.

To resubmit your information and view this Web page, click the Refresh button.

How do I prevent pages that contain data from a form being accessed by the back button.

as I see it this is how the back button works:-

The browser uses a stack to remember visited pages. Each time a link is followed, or the user gives an URL to retrieve, the browser will push the current URL on its stack. If the user selects the back function of his browser, the browser will go to the document whose URL is saved on the top of the stack (if the stack is non empty) and will pop the URL from the stack (1).

Quote:-
stack pop (stack)
This function removes the top of the stack. The object which was second in line (if any) will now become the top.

Ok I don't understand how to implement it...but this is what I'm considering.

if you have a form over three pages:-
First Page:- Fill in Form
Second Page:- Confirm to screen
Third Page:- Submit

Place stack pop (stack) on the Third Page so we return to the First Page if the browser back button is used, thus no refresh error.

Thanks in Advance
Matt

P.S. Here is the URL where I got this idea from Back button theory:-http://www.foad.org/~abigail/HTML/Misc/back_button.html
Stack theory:- http://www.foad.org/%7Eabigail/CompSci/DataStr/stacks.html
hope it is of some help/interest

[andrin]

One idea would be to overwrite the last accesed url in the clients history list. JavaScript supports this kind of feature.
You could do a check at the page you don´t want to be accesed and check if there is a later position in the history list and if it is redirect the user.
Maybe a check up of the cache functions of the HTTP protocol will help (pragma, no-cache etc).

A simple but not bulletproof solution would be to have four pages.

1. The form
2. A page that do the stuff an redirects you to the third page.
3. A page that only redirects you to the fourth page.
4. The fourth page.

This will stop your visitors from hiting the back button ONES!!! If the user expand there back button (common feature in many browsers) and explicitly choose the second page or hit the back button twice (fast) than this solution is not very good. My experience say that most users do not choose a explicit entry from the expanded history button, but if it is possibly there will always be attempts.