control window.onbeforeunload event

Question

From out of curiosity can i Control window.onbeforeunload event like check if the user decided to leave the page or stay in it and can I raise an alert or some function based on his decision if yes please tell me

<script type="text/javascript">
$(window).bind("beforeunload",function(){
if(//stay on page)
alert("i want to stay on the page");
else //leave page
 alert("i want to leave the page");
});
</script>

I understand that window.onbeforeunload is an event that give the user a message to tell him that maybe you forget to do something before you leave but this quest is just out of curiosity and thank you

i am just doing some research my goal is not firing an alert message like in the example my goal is to trigger a javascript function that do some javascript code — Sora, Aug 24 '12 at 06:04

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 24 '12 at 06:15

You can ONLY return a string which will show a dialog confirmation displaying the string you returned (But with additional ok/cancel buttons to confirm the action).

<script type="text/javascript">
$(window).bind("beforeunload",function(){
return 'Are you sure you want to leave this page?';
});
</script>

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 24 '12 at 06:07

0

You cannot get the result of onbeforeunload. Also, even if you somehow managed to figure out a way to get the result, you wouldn't be able to raise an alert. You could probably run another function.

The showModalDialog(), alert(), confirm() and prompt() methods are now allowed to do nothing during pagehide, beforeunload and unload events.

answered Aug 24 '12 at 06:07

Some Guy

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@Sora No, there isn't since browsers haven't implemented a way to do that. – Some Guy Aug 24 '12 at 06:12

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 31 '15 at 01:53

Put a timer of one second. Clear it on unload. Should work, but didn't test it.

window.addEventListener('beforeunload', function (event) {

  var timeId = setTimeout(yourFunctionIfTheUserStays, 1000);

  window.addEventListener('unload', function (event) {
    clearTimeout(timeId);
  })
  return 'Are you sure you want to leave this page?';
});

control window.onbeforeunload event

3 Answers3

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