In web applications, it’s common to allow users to bookmark or save specific documents or pages for later reference. One way to implement this feature is to leverage the session storage API in JavaScript. Session storage provides a simple way to store data on the client-side that is persistently available within a single browser session.

What is Session Storage?

Session storage is a web storage API that is similar to local storage, but with one key difference. While local storage data persists until manually cleared, session storage data is only available for the duration of the current browser session. When the browser is closed or the tab is closed, session storage data is automatically deleted.

Storing Bookmarks in Session Storage

To use session storage for storing user-specific document bookmarks, we can follow these steps:

Step 1: Identify the document to be bookmarked

When a user wants to bookmark a document, we need to first identify the specific document (e.g., using an ID or URL).

Step 2: Store the bookmark in session storage

Once the document is identified, we can store the bookmark in session storage using the setItem() method. The key could be a predefined value (e.g., “bookmarks”), and the value can be the document identifier or any other relevant data.

const documentId = 'example-document-123';
const bookmarkKey = 'bookmarks';

// Retrieve existing bookmarks from session storage
let bookmarks = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.getItem(bookmarkKey));

if (!bookmarks) {
  bookmarks = [];
}

// Add the new bookmark
bookmarks.push(documentId);

// Update the session storage with the new bookmarks
sessionStorage.setItem(bookmarkKey, JSON.stringify(bookmarks));

Step 3: Retrieve bookmarks from session storage

To retrieve the bookmarks stored in session storage, we can use the getItem() method and parse the retrieved value as JSON.

const bookmarks = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.getItem(bookmarkKey));

Step 4: Remove bookmarks from session storage

If a user wants to remove a bookmark, we can use the removeItem() method to remove the specific bookmark from session storage.

const documentToRemove = 'example-document-123';

let bookmarks = JSON.parse(sessionStorage.getItem(bookmarkKey));

if (bookmarks) {
  bookmarks = bookmarks.filter((bookmark) => bookmark !== documentToRemove);
  sessionStorage.setItem(bookmarkKey, JSON.stringify(bookmarks));
}

Conclusion

Using session storage in JavaScript provides a simple way to store user-specific document bookmarks in web applications. By leveraging the session storage API, we can allow users to save and retrieve bookmarks within a single browser session. Remember to handle cases where session storage may not be available, such as in older browsers or when browsing in incognito mode.

#webdevelopment #javascript