"location.reload()" loses POST/SESSION data? (F5 / Ctrl+R keeps data?)

Question

I want to create a button to reload a page without losing $_POST data and $_SESSION.
On the web, I found this piece of code:

onclick="document.location.reload();"

And here is the code of my button:

<a class="button" href="" style="font-size: 0.7em; padding: 5px 10px;" onclick="document.location.reload();">Recharger la page</a>

But when I click on the button, I lose $_POST data and $_SESSION.

If I try with the keyboard command Ctrl+R (Chrome) or F5 (Firefox, IE9), the browser is showing an alert to notify me that I'm again trying to submit form. If I accept, it works.

How can I reproduce this kind of browser-refresh with a JavaScript command? Or is the code of my button wrong?

Thank you very much for your help.

Answer 1

This should happen in any case as long as you are on the same location you POSTed to. However, it's common to redirect after a POST request to avoid exactly what you are trying to do.

The reason why your code doesn't work is the fact that href="" will cause a GET request to the current URL. Use href="#" to prevent it from loading a "new" page or add return false; at the end of your onclick="..." code.

Answer 2

The Ctrl + R refreshes the page and clears your cache. And I guess you're using Internet Explorer? Some other browsers behave like this when you hit Ctrl + F5, but not with Ctrl + R

Sources:
https://superuser.com/questions/205279/ctrlf5-vs-ctrlr-on-browsers
Browser issue in Ctrl-R

Answer 3

Try using

location.reload(true);

This will perform a "hard" refresh, not just rebuilding the DOM but also re-retrieving any resource from the server.

You can read more at the Mozilla Developer wiki.

Apparently, location.reload() is the equivalent of F5 in scripting, whilst Ctrl+F5 / Ctrl+R can be simulated using location.reload(true).

Also, as ThiefMaster mentioned, you're missing ;return false at the end of your onclick statement, or you should set the href to javascript:void 0^* to prevent the browser from following the link.

_{*Or any other piece of JavaScript that returns undefined}