How to implement history.back() in angular.js

I have directive which is site header with back button and I want on click to go back to the previous page. How do I do it in the angular way?

I have tried:

<header class="title">
<a class="back" ng-class="icons"><img src="../media/icons/right_circular.png" ng-click="history.back()" /></a>
<h1>{{title}}</h1>
<a href="/home" class="home" ng-class="icons"><img src="../media/icons/53-house.png" /></a>   
</header>

and this is the directive js:

myApp.directive('siteHeader', function () {
    return {
        restrict: 'E',
        templateUrl: 'partials/siteHeader.html',
        scope: {
            title: '@title',
            icons: '@icons'
        }
    };
});

but nothing happens. I looked in the angular.js API about $location but didn't find anything about back button or history.back().

You need to use a link function in your directive:

link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
     element.on('click', function() {
         $window.history.back();
     });
 }

See jsFiddle.

Angular routes watch the browser's location, so simply using window.history.back() on clicking something would work.

HTML:

<div class="nav-header" ng-click="doTheBack()">Reverse!</div>

JS:

$scope.doTheBack = function() {
  window.history.back();
};

I usually create a global function called '$back' on my app controller, which I usually put on the body tag.

angular.module('myApp').controller('AppCtrl', ['$scope', function($scope) {
  $scope.$back = function() { 
    window.history.back();
  };
}]);

Then anywhere in my app I can just do <a ng-click="$back()">Back</a>

(If you want it to be more testable, inject the $window service into your controller and use $window.history.back()).

Ideally use a simple directive to keep controllers free from redundant $window

app.directive('back', ['$window', function($window) {
        return {
            restrict: 'A',
            link: function (scope, elem, attrs) {
                elem.bind('click', function () {
                    $window.history.back();
                });
            }
        };
    }]);

Use like this:

<button back>Back</button>

Another nice and reusable solution is to create a directive like this:

app.directive( 'backButton', function() {
    return {
        restrict: 'A',
        link: function( scope, element, attrs ) {
            element.on( 'click', function () {
                history.back();
                scope.$apply();
            } );
        }
    };
} );

then just use it like this:

<a href back-button>back</a>

How to implement history.back() in angular.js

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