I want to detect browser close (not the window(tab)) and run a script. I tried onunload and onbeforeunload but they are working fine with tab close but if I close entire browser nothing happens. How can I do this?
EDIT:
I just want to do a server side cleanup on any these kind of event. Is there any way to do that?
Based on the question as asked, 'how can I [access the browser-close event]?' the only possible answer is: you can't; it's not possible. Nor, for security reasons, should it be.
I want to do a server side cleanup for any this kind of event. Is there any possible way to do it?
The only way I could think of, with JavaScript, is trigger an Ajax call to a server-side script notifying it of the close-event, using onunload or onbeforeunload, and having that script tidy up any sessions that might still be open.
Related
This question already has answers here:
Identifying Between Refresh And Close Browser Actions
(13 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I am currently looking at the "unload" event of a window to try to determine how the "unload" event was triggered, but am having little success. Is there a way to determine how the javascript event was triggered?
Page Refresh
Back Button (or navigate away from the page)
Closing the Browser
Essentially I need to execute some code only when the browser window is being closed, not refreshed or navigated away from.
Purpose: When a customer does an update of our software, the update will redirect their first Internet request to an offer page. There is a button for a "Do Not Bother" option, but some users will simply close their browser. Upon closing the browser, I need to duplicate the "Do Not Bother" functionality so the user no longer gets redirected to the offer page. Simply attaching to the "unload" event will not work due to the different ways of leaving a page.
No, and if there was it would be browser dependent.
What kind of code are you trying to run when the user closes the page?
Is it to logout the user?
Then the user would not be logged out if the browser crashes or the network connection breaks (and probably not if the computer goes to sleep/hibernation mode).
If it is for logout-purposes you should probably use a timestamp variable at the server that gets updated with every request (or use a ajax-ping), and logout the user if it hasn't been seen for a specified time.
Update: Found this answer here at stackoverflow.
Yes, there is a solution!
I've designed a solution based on onBeforeUnload+onLoad events, HTML5 local storage and client/server communication. See the details on https://stackoverflow.com/a/13916847/698168.
I use a method of doing keyboard "sniffing", in that it looks for keydown's of "F5", "ctrl+r", "alt-f4", "backspace" and others, and if it finds them flowing through the keyboard event queue, it sets boolean variables appropriately to trap that status... then I use a "onbeforeunload" function handler, which tests against those boolean status variables to decide what to do.
You can even shut down various keyboard strokes (like "ctrl+n" or "F1" for instance) by using preventDefault(), bubbles=false and returnValue=false in your keyboard handling.
This stuff is not for the faint of heart, but its certainly doable with some persistence and lots of cross browser testing!
This is actually continuation of my last question. I still face problem since when i refresh browser, either unload or beforeunload also fired which I only want them when browser closed. Just crossed on my mind to use window.outerHeight or window.innerHeight but still can't figure out how to do this. Any suggestion/snippet? Thanks in advance.
As far as I know it is impossible to detect a browser close separately from a browser refresh, because the browser does not provide the webpage (window) with that information. As far as your page and its Javascript code are concerned, the two are one and the same.
Since it's browser info that you need, the only way to get it is to use something that has access to that info, ie. a browser plug-in. But then you'll need to make a plug-in for each browser, and get every user to install it. Since I highly doubt you'll find this worthwhile, the real answer to your question (as frustrating as it may be) is: stop trying to detect refreshes vs. closes and move on.
Unload Event can be triggered both by Refresh action and Window Close action. is there a way to distinguish which action that actually trigger it? In my situation, i want to ignore the Refresh action. Could you please give me some insight what the work around is?
I noticed that there is already this sort of question asked, but it seems to they are all unresolved. Therefore i came up this question again and hopefully some intelligent guy can solve this problem.
I do not believe the browser can distinguish between the two events.
Both are an unload event, and both will call any unload function that you have made.
Is it possible to redirect to another page when the user closes the browser?
Attempts:
I tried onunload, does not work
window.onunload = function redirect(){...}
I also tried another method, it doesn't work either:
window.onbeforeunload = redirect(){...}
<body onbeforeunload="return false; redirecty()">
The 3rd method, I want to cancel the onbeforeunload (means delay closing the browser), the I call the redirect function, window.confirm, if yes redirect, if no then close the browser. But it does not work as well.
Is there any other way?? Maybe prompt to let user select whether to redirect to new page when he/she close the browser? I'm running out of ideas...
Your onbeforeunload event needs to return a string (that doesn't equate to false), the browser will include this string in its own message displayed to the user.
window.onbeforeunload = function(){
location.assign('http://www.google.com');
return "go to google instead?";
}
However, it's going to be really tricky to word your message in a way that the user would be able to understand what to do. And I'm not sure this is robust in every browser, I just tried it in Chrome, it worked, but I ended up with a tab I could not close! I managed to kill it via the Chrome task manager thankfully.
It's not without it's faults but it works
window.onbeforeunload = function(){
window.open("http://www.google.com","newwindow");
return "go to google instead?";
}
This will open a new window as a popup to the address you selected when the user closes the page, though it is limited by any popup blockers the browser may implement.
If the user is trying to close the browser, then his intentions are pretty clear; he expects that the browser will close. Preventing that from happening, or causing anything else to happen in between the user clicking on 'close' and the browser closing is just a bad idea IMO. Is there a special reason for this? I mean, when I click on the 'close' button I expect that the browser will close, and should anything else happen, I would find that extremely annoying. I think I'm being reasonable enough. Am I? Who knows such things.
Why don't you try to entice the user to visit the other page in a less intrusive way? Like with a link or a banner?
The simple answer is no. If browsers allowed you to do more with the onbeforeunload/onunload events, this could be used pretty maliciously by anybody.
This question already has answers here:
Identifying Between Refresh And Close Browser Actions
(13 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I am currently looking at the "unload" event of a window to try to determine how the "unload" event was triggered, but am having little success. Is there a way to determine how the javascript event was triggered?
Page Refresh
Back Button (or navigate away from the page)
Closing the Browser
Essentially I need to execute some code only when the browser window is being closed, not refreshed or navigated away from.
Purpose: When a customer does an update of our software, the update will redirect their first Internet request to an offer page. There is a button for a "Do Not Bother" option, but some users will simply close their browser. Upon closing the browser, I need to duplicate the "Do Not Bother" functionality so the user no longer gets redirected to the offer page. Simply attaching to the "unload" event will not work due to the different ways of leaving a page.
No, and if there was it would be browser dependent.
What kind of code are you trying to run when the user closes the page?
Is it to logout the user?
Then the user would not be logged out if the browser crashes or the network connection breaks (and probably not if the computer goes to sleep/hibernation mode).
If it is for logout-purposes you should probably use a timestamp variable at the server that gets updated with every request (or use a ajax-ping), and logout the user if it hasn't been seen for a specified time.
Update: Found this answer here at stackoverflow.
Yes, there is a solution!
I've designed a solution based on onBeforeUnload+onLoad events, HTML5 local storage and client/server communication. See the details on https://stackoverflow.com/a/13916847/698168.
I use a method of doing keyboard "sniffing", in that it looks for keydown's of "F5", "ctrl+r", "alt-f4", "backspace" and others, and if it finds them flowing through the keyboard event queue, it sets boolean variables appropriately to trap that status... then I use a "onbeforeunload" function handler, which tests against those boolean status variables to decide what to do.
You can even shut down various keyboard strokes (like "ctrl+n" or "F1" for instance) by using preventDefault(), bubbles=false and returnValue=false in your keyboard handling.
This stuff is not for the faint of heart, but its certainly doable with some persistence and lots of cross browser testing!