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After travelling back in Firefox history, JavaScript won’t run

Volker E.
Patonza

When I use the back button on Firefox to reach a previously visited page, scripts on that page won’t run again.

Is there any fix/workaround to have the scripts execute again when viewing the page the second time?

Please note that I have tested the same pages on Google Chrome and Internet Explorer and they work as intended.

Here are the files and the steps I used to test the problem:

(navigate to 0.html, click to get to 1.html, back button)

0.html

<html><body>
<script>
  window.onload = function() { alert('window.onload alert'); };
  alert('inline alert');
</script>
<a href="1.html">Click Me!</a>
</body></html>

1.html

<html><body>
<p>Go BACK!</p>
</body></html>

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Answer

Set an empty function to be called on window.onunload:

window.onunload = function(){};

e.g.

<html><body>
<script type="text/javascript">
  window.onload = function() { alert('window.onload alert'); };
  window.onunload = function(){};
  alert('inline alert');
</script>
<a href="1.html">Click Me!</a>
</body></html>

Source: http://www.firefoxanswer.com/firefox/672-firefoxanswer.html (Archived Version)