too long

Question

Maybe I'm missing something but I can't figure out how to do this.

I have a index view that lists all the records from my tiers table. The page has a "Create New Tier" button that displays a form. The user enters the data for the new tier and hits the submit button. In my TierController I have the following:

public function store()
{
//
$data = Input::all();

$tier = new Tier();
$tier->name=$data['name'];
$tier->price = $data['price'];

$tier->save();

return Redirect::back()->with('message',"Tier created successfully.");
}

This takes me back to the empty create form and displays the message but the user has to press the back button to return to the index view which doesn't show the new data until I hit refresh. I would like to have the system automatically return to the index view after the submit button is clicked with the refreshed data.

I know that I can do a Redirect::to('tiers.index')->with('message','Tier created successfully') but the problem I have with that is then the browser history looks like

tier.index -> tier.create -> tier.index

This then is very confusing for the user when they do hit the back button as the create view shows up and freaks them out.

Is there a way to do a Redirect::back (or something) that would not leave the tier.create view in the history and also refresh the index data?

Thanks

Answer 1

I don't think you can manipulate the user's browsing history without resorting to Javascript or something. Certainly not with Laravel alone. So, don't. You're overthinking this. Why do you care so much about what's in the browser's history? And why would you want to manipulate it so that it doesn't reflect the pages the user actually went through? It sort of defeats the purpose of having a history...

If your app's navigation is sufficiently intuitive and familiar, the user won't feel the need to use the native browser's back / forward buttons. Don't assume your users will make the most basic browsing mistakes unless you have data to back that up.

Having said that, conventions don't give you much choice in this matter: generally you either lead the user back to the index -- i.e. Redirect::route('tiers.index') -- or to the newly created item -- i.e. Redirect::route('tiers.show', $tier->id). Both are perfectly acceptable and surely within the user's expected outcome.

If tiers are something the user can only add within certain limits (one per user, one per category, once a day, etc), then I'd attempt to redirect him away from the create page, preventing him from filling out a fresh form which won't ever pass validation. Otherwise, chose one of the pages above and move on to your next development challenge.