Make back/forward buttons work on jQuery UI tabs.

ui-tabs.js

//change the # in the url when switching tabs
//makes refresh work!
$("#tabsMenu li a").click(function(){
	window.location.hash = $(this).attr("href");
});

//make back/forward buttons work on tabs
if($("#tabsMenu").length > 0) {
	//prevent scrolling when clicking on a tab
	var doit = true;
	$("#tabsMenu a").click(function(){
		doit = false;
	});
	
	$(window).bind('popstate', function() {
		//must be asynchronous, because usually popstate happens before the a click event.
		setTimeout(function(){
			if(doit) {
				//only happens if back/forward buttons are used
				if(window.location.hash.length > 0) { 
					$("a[href="+window.location.hash+"]").click();
				} else {
					$("#tabsMenu li:first a").click();
				}
			}
			doit = true;
		}, 0);
	});
}

You don't need to watch for the popstate command I don't think, you just do a looping check of the hash to see if it has changed and then change the page contents accordingly

I was adding back/forward functionality to a site that already had UI tabs. A looping check for the hash would be slower, but you're right, it would work in all browsers.

This worked for me:
http://benalman.com/code/projects/jquery-bbq/examples/fragment-jquery-ui-tabs/

cool, thanks!