When developing JavaScript applications, it’s common to need a way to persist user input across different pages or even browser refreshes. One way to achieve this is by using session storage, a web storage technology that allows data to be stored and retrieved on the client-side.

What is Session Storage?

Session storage is a web storage mechanism available in modern browsers that allows you to store data for a specific session. Unlike local storage, which persists data even after the browser is closed and reopened, session storage is limited to the duration of the current browser session. Once the user closes the browser or the tab, the session storage data is cleared.

Storing User Input in Session Storage

To store user input in session storage, you can listen to the user input events and update the session storage accordingly. Here’s an example of how you can achieve this using JavaScript:

// Get the input element
const inputElement = document.querySelector('#user-input');

// Add an event listener to the input element
inputElement.addEventListener('input', function() {
  // Get the user input
  const userInput = inputElement.value;

  // Store the user input in session storage
  sessionStorage.setItem('userInput', userInput);
});

In the code above, we first select the input element using its id attribute. We then attach an event listener to the input element that listens for the input event, which fires whenever the user types or deletes something in the input field. Inside the event listener, we retrieve the user input from the input element using the value property. Finally, we store the user input into session storage using the sessionStorage.setItem() method, with a key of 'userInput' and the user input as the value.

Retrieving User Input from Session Storage

Once the user navigates to another page or refreshes the current page, the session storage data will be cleared. To retrieve the previously stored user input, you can listen to page load events and populate the input field with the stored value. Here’s an example:

// Get the input element
const inputElement = document.querySelector('#user-input');

// Listen for the page load event
window.addEventListener('load', function() {
  // Retrieve the user input from session storage
  const userInput = sessionStorage.getItem('userInput');

  // Populate the input field with the stored value
  inputElement.value = userInput;
});

In this code, we select the input element and add a listener to the load event of the window object. Inside the event listener, we retrieve the stored user input from session storage using sessionStorage.getItem() with the key 'userInput'. We then set the value of the input element to the retrieved user input, effectively populating the input field with the previously stored value.

Conclusion

Using session storage in JavaScript applications provides a convenient way to persist user input across different pages or browser refreshes. By storing and retrieving the data using session storage, you can create a seamless user experience and ensure that important information is not lost during navigation.

Remember to include appropriate error handling in your code, as session storage has its limitations, such as storage capacity and compatibility with older browsers.