How Can I Prevent Back Button Navigation Without Breaking My Online Quiz Timer?

Blocking Browser Back Button in JavaScript for Online Quizzes

Encountering issues while attempting to prevent users from navigating back during an online quiz application? The provided script may hinder the exam timer's functionality.

When the user initiates the exam, a JavaScript file (cdtimer.js) triggers the timer with a duration derived from a MySQL value. However, upon implementing the back button disablement code, the timer ceases to function.

Reasons for the Timer Interference

Disabling the back button using the following methods can conflict with the timer:

window.history.forward();
function noBack() { window.history.forward(); }

Hence, these approaches are ineffective in preventing users from using the back button.

Alternative Solution

To mitigate this issue, consider providing a non-intrusive warning to users attempting to navigate back:

window.onbeforeunload = function() { return "Your work will be lost."; };

This approach alerts the user without hindering the exam timer's operation.

Other Considerations

While the aforementioned disabling methods are unreliable, the following page offers additional approaches that might provide varying levels of effectiveness:

http://www.irt.org/script/311.htm

The above is the detailed content of How Can I Prevent Back Button Navigation Without Breaking My Online Quiz Timer?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!