Populating Href With URL from Previous Page?

Question

I'm basically trying to create a button that will take the users back to a search results page of a directory. Is there any way to populate href with the url of the previous page?

Answer 1

There are a few add-ons that allow you to do this without having to rely on PHP or Javascript.

Mo Variables:

You would want to have <a href="{last_page_visited}">Back to Search Results</a> or you could do <a href="{one_page_visited}">Back to Search Results</a> the nice thing about Mo Variables is that it allows you to grab up to 5 pages of history from the session.

URL Helper:

With URL Helper you would want to use the following <a href="{referrer}">Back to Search Results</a>

They both offer similar functionality with each having something that other does not so evaluate them both and see which one suits your needs the best.

Answer 2

If you enable PHP this will output the previous URL. But HTTP_REFERER can be modified by the users browser.

<?=$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];?>

Answer 3

I extended a bit on Justin's submission, checking to ensure the reference was from within my own site. Eg. I didn't want to send people back to the Google search results page.

{exp:ce_str:ing allow_eecode="yes|yes" php}
    <?php 
        $referrer = '{referrer}'; // using extension url_helper (http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/url-helper)
        $base_url = '{global:base_url}'; // site base path

        if (strpos($referrer, $base_url) === 0) { // check if they start the same
            echo '<a href="{referrer}">Go back</a>'; // add back link to page within site
        }
    ?>
{/exp:ce_str:ing}

Answer 4

you could off course also do a href="javascript:history.back();"