jQuery hashchange event

http://benalman.com/projects/jquery-hashchange-plugin/

Version: 1.3, Last updated: 7/21/2010

This jQuery plugin enables very basic bookmarkable #hash history via a cross-browser window.onhashchange event.

Visit the project page for more information and usage examples!

Documentation

http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/docs/

Examples

These working examples, complete with fully commented code, illustrate a few ways in which this plugin can be used.

http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/examples/hashchange/
http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/examples/document_domain/

Support and Testing

Information about what version or versions of jQuery this plugin has been tested with, what browsers it has been tested in, and where the unit tests reside (so you can test it yourself).

jQuery Versions

1.2.6, 1.3.2, 1.4.1, 1.4.2

Browsers Tested

Internet Explorer 6-8, Firefox 2-4, Chrome 5-6, Safari 3.2-5, Opera 9.6-10.60, iPhone 3.1, Android 1.6-2.2, BlackBerry 4.6-5.

Unit Tests

http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/unit/

A more robust solution

This plugin is, by design, very basic. If you want to add lot of extra utility around getting and setting the hash as a state, and parsing and merging fragment params, check out the jQuery BBQ plugin. It includes this plugin at its core, plus a whole lot more, and has thorough documentation and examples as well. You can't have too much of a good thing!

Known issues

While this jQuery hashchange event implementation is quite stable and robust, there are a few unfortunate browser bugs surrounding expected hashchange event-based behaviors, independent of any JavaScript window.onhashchange abstraction. See the following examples for more information:

Chrome: Back Button
http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/examples/bug-chrome-back-button/

Firefox: Remote XMLHttpRequest
http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/examples/bug-firefox-remote-xhr/

WebKit: Back Button in an Iframe
http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/examples/bug-webkit-hash-iframe/

Safari: Back Button from a different domain
http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-hashchange/examples/bug-safari-back-from-diff-domain/

Also note that should a browser natively support the window.onhashchange event, but not report that it does, the fallback polling loop will be used.

Release History

1.3 - (7/21/2010) Reorganized IE6/7 Iframe code to make it more "removable" for mobile-only development. Added IE6/7 document.title support. Attempted to make Iframe as hidden as possible by using techniques from http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=604. Added support for the "shortcut" format $(window).hashchange( fn ) and $(window).hashchange() like jQuery provides for built-in events. Renamed jQuery.hashchangeDelay to jQuery.fn.hashchange.delay and lowered its default value to 50. Added jQuery.fn.hashchange.domain and jQuery.fn.hashchange.src properties plus document-domain.html file to address access denied issues when setting document.domain in IE6/7.
1.2 - (2/11/2010) Fixed a bug where coming back to a page using this plugin from a page on another domain would cause an error in Safari 4. Also, IE6/7 Iframe is now inserted after the body (this actually works), which prevents the page from scrolling when the event is first bound. Event can also now be bound before DOM ready, but it won't be usable before then in IE6/7.
1.1 - (1/21/2010) Incorporated document.documentMode test to fix IE8 bug where browser version is incorrectly reported as 8.0, despite inclusion of the X-UA-Compatible IE=EmulateIE7 meta tag.
1.0 - (1/9/2010) Initial Release. Broke out the jQuery BBQ event.special window.onhashchange functionality into a separate plugin for users who want just the basic event & back button support, without all the extra awesomeness that BBQ provides. This plugin will be included as part of jQuery BBQ, but also be available separately.

License

Copyright (c) 2010 "Cowboy" Ben Alman
Dual licensed under the MIT and GPL licenses.
http://benalman.com/about/license/