An Alternative to (link_to :back) that also allows the anchor to be passed along with the URL.

Lets say you have a long page with lots of information and the user scrolls down to some element on the page, and then clicks on a link to navigate to a new page.

Now, on this page you have a (link_to :back) which will take user back to the previous page. But, in doing so the user will be redirected to the start of the page instead. Wouldn't it be better, if the user was scrolled to the same element from where they navigated to the new page?

That's where this gem comes in handy, as the user will be redirected to the page along with anchor so the page scrolls down to specific element automatically.

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'back_to_anchor'

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install back_to_anchor

Just pass the param (to_anchor) from the page where you want the user to be redirected back and scrolled down to specific element. e.g.

= link_to 'New Page', new_page_path(to_anchor: 'div_id_123')

And then, just add this link to the New Page:

= link_to 'Go back to previous page', :back_to_anchor

Which in turn would generate the following URL:

https://example.org/previous-page#div_id_123`

That's all :-)

After checking out the repo, run bin/setup to install dependencies. Then, run rake spec to run the tests. You can also run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/ar31an/back_to_anchor. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Everyone interacting in the BackToAnchor project’s codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.