Handling the Browser 'Refresh' Button

When the user hits the 'refresh' button, the page resends the previous request to the server, which usually results in unexpected behavior* for web applications (*bugs).

One of the difficulties with building Web Applications is the fact that they are hosted within a 'browser'. The browser contains features that allow the user to customize their Internet browsing experience. On this note, it is EXTREMELY annoying when an application attempts to mess around with browser settings, it not threatening (in a securityish sort of way). So, in my opinion, disabling the refresh button is not an option! Besides, the user can always hit ctrl-r to get a browser refresh (and yes you could probably catch ctrl-r with javascript but that's not the point).

Response.Redirect

My current preferred method of dealing with the refresh button is to redirect back to the current page for all data modifying postback events. Something like the following,

Response.Redirect("Model.aspx");

where Model.aspx is the current page. It might not be a great idea to hardcode the page name (in case you want to change it). I've seen code where each page exposes a Url property. In this case the code would look like the following.

Response.Redirect(this.Url);

Placing these redirects in the event handlers ensures that if the user hits 'refresh' immediately after a data changing postback the event will not be re-fired. The refresh merely calls the redirect again (essentially) and reloads the page (as expected! how wonderful and easy too!).

Drawbacks

While the redirect method works, it is not without its difficulties. Remember, it is like a fresh navigation to the page, so it refires your "if( !Page.IsPostBack )" code. This can be a problem. Usually the "!IsPostBack" code populates list controls and re-running this code will cause current selections to be lost (very irritating for the user). Normally the ASP.NET Viewstate mechanism ensures the current selections on list controls are maintained through postbacks. My solution to the list selection problem is to store the current selection in Session and set the list selection manually.

Besides the extra management of Session variables, there is also the performance issue to consider. Each postback is now causing 2 hits to the server. Potentially calling into the database for data already displayed on the page. This seems like a high price to pay to deal with the 'refresh' button. Output caching may be a solution here...