Ionic: tab view doesn't show back button

Question

I have a simple Tab-based Ionic-app. I have a login before the app enters the actual tab-template. Before the tab-view is entered, the user can navigate between the views using back buttons at the navbar, which are generated automatically when tnereing a new view.

However this is not working after entering the tab. I want the tabs to have multiple views and the framework should manage the navbar since it has a navigation history and knows where the user came from. I've read about this all over the internet but I couldn't find and example.

Here is the code of the tab which should have the ability to go back, once entered the 'invite' view:

tab-home.html

    <ion-view view-title="Angelsportverein Test e.V.">
  <ion-header-bar class="bar-positive bar-subheader">
    <h1 class="title">Mitglieder</h1>
    <div class="buttons">
      <!-- the register function navigates to the invite view -->
      <button class="button icon icon-right" ng-click="invite()">
        Einladen
      </button>
    </div>
  </ion-header-bar>
  <ion-content class="has-subheader">
    <ion-list>
      <ion-item ng-repeat="item in items">
        Item {{ item.id }}
      </ion-item>
    </ion-list>
  </ion-content>
</ion-view>

tab home controller:

.controller('HomeCtrl', function($scope, $state) {
  $scope.invite = function() {
    console.log('Invite');
    $state.go('invite');
  };
})

app.js (Please note that the navigation between register, login and password forgot works perfectly how it should be)

angular.module('starter', ['ionic', 'starter.controllers', 'starter.services'])

.run(function($ionicPlatform) {
  $ionicPlatform.ready(function() {
    // Hide the accessory bar by default (remove this to show the accessory bar above the keyboard
    // for form inputs)
    if (window.cordova && window.cordova.plugins && window.cordova.plugins.Keyboard) {
      cordova.plugins.Keyboard.hideKeyboardAccessoryBar(true);
      cordova.plugins.Keyboard.disableScroll(true);

    }
    if (window.StatusBar) {
      // org.apache.cordova.statusbar required
      StatusBar.styleDefault();
    }
  });
})

.config(function($stateProvider, $urlRouterProvider) {

  // Ionic uses AngularUI Router which uses the concept of states
  // Learn more here: https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router
  // Set up the various states which the app can be in.
  // Each state's controller can be found in controllers.js
  $stateProvider
    //login states
    .state('signin', {
      url: '/sign-in',
      templateUrl: 'templates/sign-in.html',
      controller: 'SignInCtrl'
    })
    .state('forgotpassword', {
      url: '/forgot-password',
      templateUrl: 'templates/forgot-password.html'
    })
    .state('register', {
      url: '/register',
      templateUrl: 'templates/register.html',
      controller: 'RegisterCtrl'
    })

  // setup an abstract state for the tabs directive
    .state('tab', {
    url: '/tab',
    abstract: true,
    templateUrl: 'templates/tabs.html'
  })

  // Each tab has its own nav history stack:
  .state('tab.home', {
    url: '/home',
    views: {
      'tab-home': {
        templateUrl: 'templates/tab-home.html',
        controller: 'HomeCtrl'
      }
    }
  })
    .state('invite', {
      url: '/invite',
      templateUrl: 'templates/invite.html',
      controller: 'InviteCtrl'
    })
  .state('tab.kalender', {
      url: '/kalender',
      views: {
        'tab-kalender': {
          templateUrl: 'templates/tab-kalender.html',
          controller: 'KalenderCtrl'
        }
      }
    })
    .state('tab.chat-detail', {
      url: '/kalender/:chatId',
      views: {
        'tab-chats': {
          templateUrl: 'templates/chat-detail.html',
          controller: 'ChatDetailCtrl'
        }
      }
    })


  .state('tab.fangbuch', {
    url: '/fangbuch',
    views: {
      'tab-fangbuch': {
        templateUrl: 'templates/tab-fangbuch.html',
        controller: 'FangbuchCtrl'
      }
    }
  });

  // if none of the above states are matched, use this as the fallback
  $urlRouterProvider.otherwise('/sign-in');

});

tabs.html

<!--
Create tabs with an icon and label, using the tabs-positive style.
Each tab's child <ion-nav-view> directive will have its own
navigation history that also transitions its views in and out.
-->
<ion-tabs class="tabs-icon-top tabs-color-active-positive">

  <!-- Dashboard Tab -->
  <ion-tab title="Home" icon-off="ion-home" icon-on="ion-home" href="#/tab/home">
    <ion-nav-view name="tab-home"></ion-nav-view>
  </ion-tab>

  <!-- Kalender Tab -->
  <ion-tab title="Kalender" icon-off="ion-calendar" icon-on="ion-calendar" href="#/tab/kalender">
    <ion-nav-view name="tab-kalender"></ion-nav-view>
  </ion-tab>

  <!-- Fangbuch Tab -->
  <ion-tab title="Fangbuch" icon-off="ion-folder" icon-on="ion-folder" href="#/tab/fangbuch">
    <ion-nav-view name="tab-fangbuch"></ion-nav-view>
  </ion-tab>


</ion-tabs>

index.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no, width=device-width">
    <title></title>

    <link href="lib/ionic/css/ionic.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <link href="css/style.css" rel="stylesheet">

    <!-- IF using Sass (run gulp sass first), then uncomment below and remove the CSS includes above
    <link href="css/ionic.app.css" rel="stylesheet">
    -->

    <!-- ionic/angularjs js -->
    <script src="lib/ionic/js/ionic.bundle.js"></script>

    <!-- cordova script (this will be a 404 during development) -->
    <script src="cordova.js"></script>

    <!-- your app's js -->
    <script src="js/app.js"></script>
    <script src="js/controllers.js"></script>
    <script src="js/services.js"></script>
  </head>
  <body ng-app="starter">
    <!--
      The nav bar that will be updated as we navigate between views.
    -->
    <ion-nav-bar class="bar-stable">
      <ion-nav-back-button>
      </ion-nav-back-button>
    </ion-nav-bar>
    <!--
      The views will be rendered in the <ion-nav-view> directive below
      Templates are in the /templates folder (but you could also
      have templates inline in this html file if you'd like).
    -->
    <ion-nav-view></ion-nav-view>


  </body>
</html>

Answer 1

It does not work because the state configuration for your invite state is incorrect. You have specified invite to be a sibling of tab state but it should be a child of tab.home for the ion-nav-bar directive to automatically generate the back button and handle the history. Also you need to render the invite view within the named tab tab-home. Change your state configuration as below and your expected behaviour should work:

.state('tab.invite', {
  url: '/invite',
  views: {
    'tab-home': {
      templateUrl: 'templates/invite.html',
      controller: 'InviteCtrl'
    }
  }
})