Javascript detect URL the user is leaving to

Question

My website, as most websites today, uses the same template for most of its pages and I am building a system that allows for ajax to load only page content without reloading the whole template. For the purpose I'm looking for a method that fires before the browser is redirected to another page. Something like onbeforeunload but I also need to know the location of the redirect, is there such a thing?

I need to catch link clicks, back button clicks, forward button clicks as well as manual redirects like window.location = url

If your using ajax to generate the page content, the page wont be reloaded? — Kiee, Aug 25 '14 at 10:42
@Kiee yes but how do I know which page to load? This function only detects when the user is leaving, not where he's going — php_nub_qq, Aug 25 '14 at 10:44
Already been answered?http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1930927/how-can-i-detect-an-address-bar-change-with-javascript — Kiee, Aug 25 '14 at 10:49
maybe this is what you are looking for - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9638591/detecting-a-redirect-with-javascript-how — sunny, Aug 25 '14 at 11:02
@sunny yes I found this as well but I don't see how it can apply in my case — php_nub_qq, Aug 25 '14 at 11:04

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 25 '14 at 10:59

There is no direct way to find out what URL the user is leaving the page for.

You would need to bind event handlers to the various different things that the user can use to leave the current page.

For links, you can bind a click event handler and then examine the href attribute.

For forms, you can bind a submit event handler and then collect the form data and examine the action and method.

For the back button you can bind a popstate event handler (which you could use in conjunction with pushState and friends).

You, obviously, couldn't detect where the user was going if they used a bookmark or just typed a new address into the address bar.

Javascript detect URL the user is leaving to

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