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My current web application gets the key press of the user, however, if the user hits the delete or backspace button it sends the user back a page. Is their a way of preventing this?

npage
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  • Why your application sendes th user a page back if the user hits the delete or backspace? – idmean Mar 16 '13 at 15:09
  • no it doesn't send them back. I think it is a default setting on browsers for if some element isn't focused and they hit the back button it will automatically send them back a page. – npage Mar 16 '13 at 15:11
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    @juhana Yes it does, I know older version of IE definitely do this. Current versions of Chrome do as well. – JaredMcAteer Mar 16 '13 at 15:12
  • even the latest version of google chrome does it. – npage Mar 16 '13 at 15:13

1 Answers1

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jQuery makes this easy. You can easily replace this with vanilla JS and use addEventListener() for class A browsers and attachEvent() for legacy IE, and normalize keyCode and charCode yourself. But why? 

$(document).on('keyup', function(e){
    var keycode =  e.keyCode ? e.keyCode : e.which;    
    if(keycode == 46){ // delete
        e.stopPropagation();
        e.preventDefault();
    }
});

The backspace key keyCode 8 is detectable from within a focused input only and will likely still emit your undesired behavior, but it'll keep the user happy.

Here is a complete list of keyCodes

AlienWebguy
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