How can I ask users to confirm before leaving the page on iOS safari?

Question

I now have:

window.onbeforeunload = confirmFirst;

function confirmFirst() {   
  return "Leave the page?"; 
}

This can give users a prompt to confirm that they are leaving the page on all major browsers, except on iOS safari. How can I make it work?

I want to implement this as my users often accidentally swipe right (back button) and left the page after typing in some long paragraphs on my site. Thank you!

This is really bad from IOS devices. Such an important event(onunload, pagehide) to track key information before leaving the page. #ios-bugs — webblover, Apr 16 '20 at 06:51

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

1

What's wrong with your code right now? That should do the job...
You can do this using either regular JS:

window.onbeforeunload = function(){
  return 'Leave the page?';
};

Or even jQuery:

$(window).bind('beforeunload', function(){   
  return 'Leave the page?'; 
});

Is this useful?
Is there an alternative method to use onbeforeunload in mobile safari?

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

1
1

answered Jul 07 '15 at 14:44

Cédric D.

27
8

1

Assuming iOS safari respects the beforeunload event - which it does not. https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/AppleApplications/Reference/SafariWebContent/HandlingEvents/HandlingEvents.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006511-SW5 – mplungjan Jul 07 '15 at 14:44
Yeah I looked over the iOS part. – Cédric D. Jul 07 '15 at 14:47
I found this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6205989/is-there-an-alternative-method-to-use-onbeforeunload-in-mobile-safari – Cédric D. Jul 07 '15 at 14:47

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 07 '15 at 14:42

0

window.onbeforeunload = confirmFirst;

function confirmFirst() {   
  if(confirm("Leave the page?")){
    // some code
  }else{
   return false;
  } 
}

edited Jul 07 '15 at 14:42

Ashley Medway

7,151
7
49
71

answered Jul 07 '15 at 14:40

Keerthi

923
6
22

What's with the random jQuery reference? – Ashley Medway Jul 07 '15 at 14:41

How can I ask users to confirm before leaving the page on iOS safari?

2 Answers2