<a is="html5-history-anchor">

Extend the <a> tag with the HTML5 history API

Fully featured version of the pushstate-anchor

A link from 1992.

<a href="/home">Home</a>

Now using the HTML5 window.history API.

<a is="html5-history-anchor" href="/home" pushstate popstate
   title="Home Page" state='{"message":"New State!"}'>Home</a>

Clicking this link calls the HTML5 history API.

window.history.pushState({message:'New State!'}, 'Home Page', '/home');
window.dispatchEvent(new PopStateEvent('popstate', {
  bubbles: false,
  cancelable: false,
  state: {message:'New State!'}
}));

Install

Download or run bower install html5-history-anchor --save

Import

<link rel="import" href="/bower_components/html5-history-anchor/html5-history-anchor.html">
or
<script src="/bower_components/html5-history-anchor/html5-history-anchor.js"></script>

API

The API is a direct extension of the <a> tag and window.history. Examples:

Push a new state with history.pushState(null, null, '/new-state') and dispatch a popstate event.

<a is="html5-history-anchor" href="/new-state" pushstate popstate>New State</a>

Replace the current state with history.replaceState({message:'Replaced State!'}, null, '/replaced-state') and don't popstate.

<a is="html5-history-anchor" href="/replaced-state"
   replacestate state='{"message":"Replaced State!"}'>Replaced State</a>

Back button with history.back().

<a is="html5-history-anchor" back>Back</a>

Forward button with history.forward().

<a is="html5-history-anchor" forward>Forward</a>

Back 2 pages with history.go(-2).

<a is="html5-history-anchor" go="-2">Back 2 Pages</a>

Refresh the page with history.go(0).

<a is="html5-history-anchor" go>Refresh</a>

Notes

The HTML5 history spec is a bit quirky. history.pushState() doesn't dispatch a popstate event or load a new page by itself. It was only meant to push state into history. This is an "undo" feature for single page applications. This is why you have to manually dispatch a popstate event. Including both pushstate and popstate attributes on the link will push the new state into history then dispatch a popstate event which you can use to load a new page with a router.

• history.pushState() and history.replaceState() don't dispatch popstate events.
• history.back(), history.forward(), and the browser's back and foward buttons do dispatch popstate events.
• history.go() and history.go(0) do a full page reload and don't dispatch popstate events.
• history.go(-1) (back 1 page) and history.go(1) (forward 1 page) do dispatch popstate events.

Build, Test, and Debug

Source files are under the src folder. The build process writes to the root directory. The easiest way to debug is to include the source script rather than the minified HTML import.

<script src="/bower_components/html5-history-anchor/src/html5-history-anchor.js"></script>

To build:

• Run bower install and npm install to install dev dependencies
• Lint, build, and minify code changes with gulp (watch with gulp watch)
• Start a static content server to run tests (node http-server or python -m SimpleHTTPServer)
• Run unit tests in the browser (PhantomJS doesn't support Web Components) http://localhost:8080/tests/SpecRunner.html
• Manually run functional tests in the browser http://localhost:8080/tests/functional-test-site/