javascript: history.go(-1) not working in internet explorer 7

Question

I am executing this line from a function -having this code only- that is called on onclick event on a link.

document.getElementById("backButton").href="javascript: history.go(-1);"

But this is not working for IE 7. Can anyone help me on this? Here is the other part of code:

<a id="backButton" title="Go Back To Previous Page"  href="./inmaking.html" 
    onclick="goBack();" onmouseover="status=''; return true;"
    style="background-color:#CCCC00;" >here</a> to go back to previous page.

Answer 1

Try this instead:

<a id="backButton" title="Go Back To Previous Page" href="javascript:history.go(-1)" onmouseover="status=''; return true;" style="background-color:#CCCC00;" >here</a> to go back to previous page.

Answer 2

Your link has a default href value. To prevent the browser from entering it, you need to add return false; to end of the onclick.

onclick="goBack(); return false;"

Needless to say that stepping in browser history using JS like that is a poor practice. Rather store the last requested URL in the session scope or as a hidden input field and finally dynamically populate the link's href with that using whatever serverside language you're using.