Prevent navigating to another view if contents are unsaved

Question

We have a backbone.js app that displays a number of forms to the user. What we want is very simple: if the user goes to another page without saving the filled-in form, we want t

Answer 1

I would also hack Backbone.history.loadUrl, that's where loading the route callbacks happen.

// ALLOW PREVENTING HASH NAVIGATION

var originalFn = Backbone.history.loadUrl;

Backbone.history.loadUrl = function() {
    // I introduced an application state variable, but it can be solved in multiple ways
    if (app && app.states.isNavigationBlocked) {
        var previousFragment = Backbone.history.fragment;
        window.location.hash = '#' + previousFragment;
        return false;
    }
    else {
        return originalFn.apply(this, arguments);
    }
};

Explanation:

1)

Backbone listens to the hashchange event and sets Backbone.history.checkUrl as a callback: https://github.com/jashkenas/backbone/blob/1.1.2/backbone.js#L1414

Backbone.$(window).on('hashchange', this.checkUrl);

2)

Backbone.history.checkUrl checks if the hash has changed and calls Backbone.history.loadUrl

checkUrl: function(e) {
  var current = this.getFragment();
  if (current === this.fragment && this.iframe) {
    current = this.getFragment(this.getHash(this.iframe));
  }
  if (current === this.fragment) return false;
  if (this.iframe) this.navigate(current);
  this.loadUrl();
},

3)

Backbone.history.loadUrl finds the first matching route and calls its callback:

loadUrl: function(fragment) {
  fragment = this.fragment = this.getFragment(fragment);
  return _.any(this.handlers, function(handler) {
    if (handler.route.test(fragment)) {
      handler.callback(fragment);
      return true;
    }
  });
},

Useful note:

Backbone.history.fragment stores the current hash, it's set in Backbone.history.loadUrl, so we can access it AFTER the hashchange event but BEFORE the router callbacks do their job.