I have a client that is using JSP (Java) and Javascript/JQuery for their pages. I have a requirement for a particular modeless pop up page that states the user cannot X out of the window if there is text in the description textarea (they will need to use a cancel button or clear out the text). That's part is easy and I have found a ton of ways to do it online. The part I am having trouble with is: They do NOT want the error in an alert box, they want the error message simply displayed in the same window without having to click and close the alert. I cannot seem to find anything that will disable the X button without the alert box. Also, we're browser agnostic, so the solution must work for any browser.
If this alert is enforced by the browser and there's no way around it, I can obviously explain that to the client, but I am not sure if that's the case or not.
So, I am asking ether for some ideas on how to meet the requirement or if the requirement is impossible, some evidence to back that up.
This is what I've tried so far but gives the alert box, so it does not satisfactorily meet the requirement:
function isDescriptionPopulated() {
var desc = $("#description")
.val();
if (desc === "") {
return false;
} else {
return true;
}
}
window.addEventListener('beforeunload', function(e) {
if (isDescriptionPopulated()) {
e.preventDefault();
e.returnValue = undefined;
}
});
I am far from a Javascript expert, so I'm hoping maybe one of you can guide me in the right direction.
Related
Using Cognos Analtyics 11.1.7IF9.
I have a user who, oddly enough, wants Cognos to make his workflow more efficient. (The nerve!) He thinks that if he can use the TAB button to navigate a prompt page, he'll be faster because he never needs to reach for the mouse.
To test this I created a simple report with a very simple prompt page using only textbox prompts. As I tab I notice it tabs to everything in the browser: browser tabs, the address bar, other objects in Cognos, ...even the labels (text items) I created for the prompts. Oh... and yes, at some point focus lands on a prompt control.
Within Cognos, I see that the tab order generally appears to be from the top down. (I haven't tried multiple columns of prompts in a table yet.) I must tab through the visual elements between the prompts. Also, while value prompts get focus, there is no visible indication of this.
Is there a way to set the tab order for the prompts on a prompt page?
Can I force it to skip the non-prompt elements?
Can the prompts be made to indicate that they have focus?
I tagged this question with javascript because I figure the answer will likely involve a Custom Control or a Page Module.
Of course, then I'll need to figure out how all this will work with cascading prompts and conditional blocks.
I found a similar post complaining about this being a problem in Cognos 8. The answer contains no detail. It just says to go to a non-existent web page.
I had the same frustration as your user and I made a solution a while back that could work for you. It's not the most elegant javascript and I get a weird error in the console but functionally it works so I haven't needed to fix it.
I created a custom control script that does 2 things on a prompt page.
First, it removes the ability to "select" text item elements on the page. If you only have text items and prompts on the page it sets it's "Tabindex" to "-1". This allows you to tab from one prompt field to the next without it selecting invisible elements or text elements between prompts.
Secondly, if you press "Enter" on the keyboard it automatically submits the form. I am pasting the code below which you can save as a .js and call it in a custom control on a prompt page. Set the UI Type to "None"
define( function() {
"use strict";
function AdvancedControl()
{
};
AdvancedControl.prototype.initialize = function( oControlHost, fnDoneInitializing )
{
function enterSubmit (e)
{
if(e.keyCode === 13)
{
try {oControlHost.finish();} catch {}
}
};
function setTab () {
let nL = [...document.querySelectorAll("[specname=textItem]")]
//console.log(nL)
nL.forEach((node) =>{
node.setAttribute('tabindex','-1')
})
};
setTab();
let exec_submit = document.addEventListener("keydown", enterSubmit, false);
try {exec_submit;} catch {}
fnDoneInitializing();
};
return AdvancedControl;
});
I have an MVC2 C#.Net web app. When a user attempts to leave a view, I want to pop up a confirm box to alert them that they have made changes but not yet saved.
In a previous .Net 3.5 app, I used window.onbeforeunload. That doesn't seem to work in MVC3. What would be an appropriate place or event to call to do this type of activity?
Here's the answer I came up with. When I first ran the below code, I got two pop ups; one for my confirm box and one for the standard windows OK/Cancel box. That was a case of me not knowing how the event worked:
window.onbeforeunload = function () {
if (document.title.indexOf("*") != -1) {
confirm("You have unsaved changes...");
}
}
After this I tried the following code. What happened was the standard windows OK/Cancel box showed with the "You have unsaved changes..." prompt. This is a satisfactory solution
window.onbeforeunload = function () {
if (document.title.indexOf("*") != -1) {
return "You have unsaved changes...";
}
}
I have a Flex application where I want to give the user a warning if they hit the back-button so they don't mistakenly leave the app. I know this can't be done entirely in Actionscript due to cross-browser incompatibility. What I'm looking for is just the Javascript implementation to catch the back-button.
Does anyone have a simple non-library cross-browser script to catch the back-button? I can't seem to find a post that shows an example.
You can use the window.onbeforeunload event.
window.onbeforeunload = function () {
return "Are you sure you want to leave my glorious Flex app?"
}
The user can press okay to leave, cancel to stay.
As you stated, this throws the alert any time the page changes. In order to make sure it only happens on a back button click, we have to eliminate the alert message whenever they're leaving the page from natural, expected sources.
var okayToLeave = false;
window.onbeforeunload = function () {
if (!okayToLeave) {
return "Are you sure you want to leave my glorious Flex app?"
}
}
function OkayToLeave() {
okayToLeave = true;
}
You'll have the responsibility of setting the variable to true whenever they click a button or link that will take them from that page naturally. I'd use a function for unobtrusive javascript.
Set your event handlers in the DOM ready:
referenceToElement.addEventListener('onClick', OkayToLeave(), false);
This is untested, but should point you in the right direction. Although it may seem like a nuisance to do this, I imagine it's more complete functionality. It covers the cases where a user may click on a favorite, or be redirected from an external application.
Is it possible to block users from closing the window using the exit button [X]? I am actually providing a close button in the page for the users to close the window.Basically what I'm trying to do is to force the users to fill the form and submit it. I don't want them to close the window till they have submitted it.
I really appreciate your comments, I'm not thinking of hosting on any commercial website. Its an internal thing, we are actually getting all the staff to participate in this survey we have designed....
I know its not the right way but I was wondering if there was a solution to the problem we have got here...
Take a look at onBeforeUnload.
It wont force someone to stay but it will prompt them asking them whether they really want to leave, which is probably the best cross browser solution you can manage. (Similar to this site if you attempt to leave mid-answer.)
<script language="JavaScript">
window.onbeforeunload = confirmExit;
function confirmExit() {
return "You have attempted to leave this page. Are you sure?";
}
</script>
Edit: Most browsers no longer allow a custom message for onbeforeunload.
See this bug report from the 18th of February, 2016.
onbeforeunload dialogs are used for two things on the Modern Web:
Preventing users from inadvertently losing data.
Scamming users.
In an attempt to restrict their use for the latter while not stopping the former, we are going to not display the string provided by the webpage. Instead, we are going to use a generic string.
Firefox already does this[...]
If you don't want to display popup for all event you can add conditions like
window.onbeforeunload = confirmExit;
function confirmExit() {
if (isAnyTaskInProgress) {
return "Some task is in progress. Are you sure, you want to close?";
}
}
This works fine for me
What will you do when a user hits ALT + F4 or closes it from Task Manager
Why don't you keep track if they did not complete it in a cookie or the DB and when they visit next time just bring the same screen back...:BTW..you haven't finished filling this form out..."
Of course if you were around before the dotcom bust you would remember porn storms, where if you closed 1 window 15 others would open..so yes there is code that will detect a window closing but if you hit ALT + F4 twice it will close the child and the parent (if it was a popup)
This will pop a dialog asking the user if he really wants to close or stay, with a message.
var message = "You have not filled out the form.";
window.onbeforeunload = function(event) {
var e = e || window.event;
if (e) {
e.returnValue = message;
}
return message;
};
You can then unset it before the form gets submitted or something else with
window.onbeforeunload = null;
Keep in mind that this is extremely annoying. If you are trying to force your users to fill out a form that they don't want to fill out, then you will fail: they will find a way to close the window and never come back to your mean website.
How about that?
function internalHandler(e) {
e.preventDefault(); // required in some browsers
e.returnValue = ""; // required in some browsers
return "Custom message to show to the user"; // only works in old browsers
}
if (window.addEventListener) {
window.addEventListener('beforeunload', internalHandler, true);
} else if (window.attachEvent) {
window.attachEvent('onbeforeunload', internalHandler);
}
If your sending out an internal survey that requires 100% participation from your company's employees, then a better route would be to just have the form keep track of the responders ID/Username/email etc. Every few days or so just send a nice little email reminder to those in your organization to complete the survey...you could probably even automate this.
It's poor practice to force the user to do something they don't necessarily want to do. You can't ever really prevent them from closing the browser.
You can achieve a similar effect, though, by making a div on your current web page to layer over top the rest of your controls so your form is the only thing accessible.
Well you can use the window.onclose event and return false in the event handler.
function closedWin() {
confirm("close ?");
return false; /* which will not allow to close the window */
}
if(window.addEventListener) {
window.addEventListener("close", closedWin, false);
}
window.onclose = closedWin;
Code was taken from this site.
In the other hand, if they force the closing (by using task manager or something in those lines) you cannot do anything about it.
When a user leaves one page of my website, there should be a warning message which gives the user the option to stay on the page:
"Are you sure that you want to close this page?"
It doesn't matter if the next page is an internal or external page.
I thought this could be done with the onUnload event handler, couldn't it?
<body onunload="confirmClose()">
The confirmClose() function must then show a message box with two buttons so that the user can choose between "Really leave" or "Stay".
function confirmClose() {
return confirm('Really leave this page?')
}
But this function can't stop the unload, right?
Do you have a solution for my problem? Thanks in advance!
You can only provide the text. The browser handles the dialog box (security reasons). Here is some code you can use:
window.onbeforeunload = function (e) {
var e = e || window.event;
var msg = 'Are you sure you want to leave?';
// For IE and Firefox
if (e) {
e.returnValue = msg;
}
// For Safari / chrome
return msg;
}
Try this out on different browsers, though. You'll notice the message should be constructed differently depending on the different browsers' dialog wording.
Here is what I use:
if (IsChrome) {
return 'You were in the middle of editing. You will lose your changes if you leave this page';
} else {
return 'You were in the middle of editing. Press OK to leave this page (you will lose your changes).';
}
You can add an onbeforeunload event. Note that it can only return a text string to include in the dialog the browser will display when the event is called. You can't tweak the dialog beyond that, nor can you trigger your own confirm as you're trying to do.
I'd note that this is very, very annoying behaviour except in a few specific situations. Unless you're saving me from significant data loss with this, please don't do it.
The browser takes care of displaying the confirm window.
You need to return the string with the message that you want to ask. Also, you may want to use onbeforeunload for cross browser compatibility.