# How to return to last viewed page? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 1, 2007, 8:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-return-to-last-viewed-page/108263 "2007-07-01T08:22:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 8:22am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-return-to-last-viewed-page/108263/1 "2007-07-01T08:22:51Z")
I have a Contact Us link in the footer of most of my pages. Clicking this takes the user to a new page containing a form for sending us a msg of some sort. The form has Submit and Cancel buttons. After the user clicks one of these buttons to post the message, I’d like to return them to whatever page they were viewing before they clicked Contact Us. Anyway to do this? ---
**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 8:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-return-to-last-viewed-page/108263/2 "2007-07-01T08:51:19Z")
lunaclaire wrote: > I have a Contact Us link in the footer of most of my pages. Clicking > this takes the user to a new page containing a form for sending us a > msg of some sort. > Anyway to do this? @request.env[“HTTP\_REFERER”] thing is, if the user got to the form from say, google, the http\_referer would redirect back to the google search result page…a different option is to store the id of the page that was redirected to in the params, and redirect back to there when the post is submitted…params[:redirect] or something like that. whichever u choose. ---
**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 8:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-return-to-last-viewed-page/108263/3 "2007-07-01T20:47:03Z")
Thanks, Shai. I like the second option since it seems more robust… but I’m missing what you mean by “store the id of the page”… what id would serve as the identifier in this case? On Jun 30, 11:51 pm, Shai R. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-return-to-last-viewed-page/108263/4 "2007-07-01T22:04:11Z")
BTW - I tried using redirect :back which seems obvious and I think is quite similar to what Shai is suggesting, but all it does is return to the Contact Us form page any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lunaclaire](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/lunaclaire)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 12:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-return-to-last-viewed-page/108263/5 "2007-07-02T00:15:25Z")
I usually do this by appending a :return\_to =\> request.request\_uri at the end of the link\_to that links to the contact form. Then add a before filter that stuffs that parameter into the session, and use that session variable for the destination for the redirect after the form has been submitted. If you are using acts\_as\_authenticated, you already have the redirect\_back\_or\_default method that makes this easy. The cancel button can also take a peek at this session variable to know what its destination should be. – Benjamin C. [http://www.bencurtis.com/](http://www.bencurtis.com/) – blog [http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce](http://agilewebdevelopment.com/rails-ecommerce) – build e-commerce sites with Rails