Bug 262542

Summary:	history.back() does not restore scroll position
Product:	WebKit	Reporter:	Christian Taylor <christianbtaylor>
Component:	History	Assignee:	Nobody <webkit-unassigned>
Status:	RESOLVED INVALID
Severity:	Normal	CC:	beidson, cdumez, simon.fraser, webkit-bug-importer
Priority:	P2	Keywords:	InRadar
Version:	Safari 16
Hardware:	Mac (Intel)
OS:	macOS 13

Description Christian Taylor 2023-10-03 08:04:56 PDT

When navigating back to a long page using `history.back()` or `history.go(-1)` the browser returns to the page and resets the scroll position to `0`.
However, performing the same navigation using the browser's "back" button restores the scroll position on the previous page.
I would expect `history.back()` to behave the same as clicking the back button and restore the previous page's scroll position.

Comment 1 Simon Fraser (smfr) 2023-10-03 10:29:25 PDT

Do you have an example of a page that shows this bug?

Comment 2 Radar WebKit Bug Importer 2023-10-03 10:29:37 PDT

<rdar://problem/116408614>

Comment 3 Christian Taylor 2023-10-03 11:25:55 PDT

Ah, I put together a demo and found an explanation.

My link markup looked like this:

`<a href="/previous" onclick="history.back()">Back</a>`

I realized `back()` is asynchronous so the `href` is being followed as though the link were clicked.

If I change the `onclick` to `event.preventDefault();history.back()` things work as I would expect.

I was thrown off because `onclick="history.back()"` works in FireFox without needing the `preventDefault()`.

I think this report can be closed. Thanks for letting me rubber duck this issue.

Comment 4 Simon Fraser (smfr) 2023-10-03 11:39:35 PDT

Thank you for checking.