How to get JS variable to retain value after page refresh?

You can do that by storing cookies on client side.

You will have to use cookie to store the value across page refresh. You can use any one of the many javascript based cookie libraries to simplify the cookie access, like this one

If you want to support only html5 then you can think of Storage api like localStorage/sessionStorage

Ex: using localStorage and cookies library

var mode = getStoredValue('myPageMode');

function buttonClick(mode) {
    mode = mode;
    storeValue('myPageMode', mode);
}

function storeValue(key, value) {
    if (localStorage) {
        localStorage.setItem(key, value);
    } else {
        $.cookies.set(key, value);
    }
}

function getStoredValue(key) {
    if (localStorage) {
        return localStorage.getItem(key);
    } else {
        return $.cookies.get(key);
    }
}

In addition to cookies and localStorage, there's at least one other place you can store "semi-persistent" client data: window.name. Any string value you assign to window.name will stay there until the window is closed.

To test it out, just open the console and type window.name = "foo", then refresh the page and type window.name; it should respond with foo.

This is a bit of a hack, but if you don't want cookies filled with unnecessary data being sent to the server with every request, and if you can't use localStorage for whatever reason (legacy clients), it may be an option to consider.

window.name has another interesting property: it's visible to windows served from other domains; it's not subject to the same-origin policy like nearly every other property of window. So, in addition to storing "semi-persistent" data there while the user navigates or refreshes the page, you can also use it for CORS-free cross-domain communication.

Note that window.name can only store strings, but with the wide availability of JSON, this shouldn't be much of an issue even for complex data.

This is possible with window.localStorage or window.sessionStorage. The difference is that sessionStorage lasts for as long as the browser stays open, localStorage survives past browser restarts. The persistence applies to the entire web site not just a single page of it.

When you need to set a variable that should be reflected in the next page(s), use:

var someVarName = "value";
localStorage.setItem("someVarKey", someVarName);

And in any page (like when the page has loaded), get it like:

var someVarName = localStorage.getItem("someVarKey");

.getItem() will return null if no value stored, or the value stored.

Note that only string values can be stored in this storage, but this can be overcome by using JSON.stringify and JSON.parse. Technically, whenever you call .setItem(), it will call .toString() on the value and store that.

MDN's DOM storage guide (linked below), has workarounds/polyfills, that end up falling back to stuff like cookies, if localStorage isn't available.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to use an existing, or create your own mini library, that abstracts the ability to save any data type (like object literals, arrays, etc.).

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References:

• Browser Storage - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Storage
• localStorage - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/Storage#localStorage
• JSON - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JSON
• Browser Storage compatibility - http://caniuse.com/namevalue-storage
• Storing objects - Storing Objects in HTML5 localStorage