Angular 2 How To Detect Back Button Press Using Router And Location Go

Navigating back in a web application is a common user behavior that we need to handle gracefully to enhance the user experience. In this article, we will discuss how to detect the back button press in an Angular 2 application using the Router and Location services.

When a user presses the back button in the browser, by default, the Angular application won't be aware of this action. However, we can leverage Angular's Router and Location services to detect this event and perform additional actions accordingly.

To get started, we first need to import the Router and Location services from `@angular/router` in the component where we want to detect the back button press. Make sure to add the necessary imports at the top of your component file:

import { Router } from '@angular/router';
import { Location } from '@angular/common';

Next, inject these services in the component's constructor:

constructor(private router: Router, private location: Location) { }

Now, let's implement the logic to detect the back button press. We can achieve this by subscribing to the `Location` service's `popstate` event, which is triggered whenever the back or forward button is pressed in the browser:

ngOnInit() {
  this.location.subscribe(() => {
    // Logic to handle back button press
    console.log('Back button pressed');
  });
}

In the code snippet above, we are subscribing to the `popstate` event of the `Location` service. Whenever the back button is pressed, the callback function specified within the `subscribe` method will be executed. You can replace `console.log('Back button pressed')` with your custom logic to handle the back button press event.

It's important to note that the `popstate` event is triggered not only by the back button press but also by other navigation actions such as forward button press or changing the browser's history. Therefore, you may need to add additional checks in your callback function to ensure it specifically handles the back button press.

By detecting the back button press in your Angular 2 application, you can enhance user experience by providing a more seamless navigation flow and potentially triggering specific actions based on this user interaction.

In conclusion, by utilizing Angular's Router and Location services and subscribing to the `popstate` event, you can easily detect the back button press in your Angular 2 application. Implementing this functionality allows you to enhance user experience and provide better control over navigation flows within your web application.