Way to know if user clicked Cancel on a Javascript onbeforeunload Dialog?

Question

I am popping up a dialog box when someone tries to navigate away from a particular page without having saved their work. I use Javascript's onbeforeunload event, works great.

Now I want to run some Javascript code when the user clicks "Cancel" on the dialog that comes up (saying they don't want to navigate away from the page).

Is this possible? I'm using jQuery as well, so is there maybe an event like beforeunloadcancel I can bind to?

UPDATE: The idea is to actually save and direct users to a different webpage if they chose cancel

Answer 1

You can do it like this:

$(function() {
    $(window).bind('beforeunload', function() {
        setTimeout(function() {
            setTimeout(function() {
                $(document.body).css('background-color', 'red');
            }, 1000);
        },1);
        return 'are you sure';
    });
}); 

The code within the first setTimeout method has a delay of 1ms. This is just to add the function into the UI queue. Since setTimeout runs asynchronously the Javascript interpreter will continue by directly calling the return statement, which in turn triggers the browsers modal dialog. This will block the UI queue and the code from the first setTimeout is not executed, until the modal is closed. If the user pressed cancel, it will trigger another setTimeout which fires in about one second. If the user confirmed with ok, the user will redirect and the second setTimeout is never fired.

example: http://www.jsfiddle.net/NdyGJ/2/

Answer 2

I know this question is old now, but in case anyone is still having issues with this, I have found a solution that seems to work for me,

Basically the unload event is fired after the beforeunload event. We can use this to cancel a timeout created in the beforeunload event, modifying jAndy's answer:

$(function() {
    var beforeUnloadTimeout = 0 ;
    $(window).bind('beforeunload', function()  {
        console.log('beforeunload');
        beforeUnloadTimeout = setTimeout(function() {
            console.log('settimeout function');
            $(document.body).css('background-color', 'red');
        },500);
        return 'are you sure';
    });
    $(window).bind('unload', function() {
        console.log('unload');
        if(typeof beforeUnloadTimeout !=='undefined' && beforeUnloadTimeout != 0)
            clearTimeout(beforeUnloadTimeout);
    });
}); 

EDIT: jsfiddle here

Answer 3

Not possible. Maybe someone will prove me wrong... What code do you want to run? Do you want to auto-save when they click cancel? That sounds counter-intuitive. If you don't already auto-save, I think it makes little sense to auto-save when they hit "Cancel". Maybe you could highlight the save button in your onbeforeunload handler so the user sees what they need to do before navigating away.

Answer 4

I didn't think it was possible, but just tried this idea and it works (although it is some what of a hack and may not work the same in all browsers):

window.onbeforeunload = function () {   
  $('body').mousemove(checkunload);
  return "Sure thing"; 
};

function checkunload() {   
  $('body').unbind("mousemove");
  //ADD CODE TO RUN IF CANCEL WAS CLICKED
}

Answer 5

Another variation The first setTimeout waits for the user to respond to the browser's Leave/Cancel popup. The second setTimeout waits 1 second, and then CancelSelected is only called if the user cancels. Otherwise the page is unloaded and the setTimeout is lost.

window.onbeforeunload  = function(e) {
    e.returnValue = "message to user";
    setTimeout(function () { setTimeout(CancelSelected, 1000); }, 100);
}

function CancelSelected() {
    alert("User selected stay/cancel");
}

Answer 6

window.onbeforeunload  = function() {
    if (confirm('Do you want to navigate away from this page?')) {
        alert('Saving work...(OK clicked)')
    } else {
        alert('Saving work...(canceled clicked)')
        return false
    }
 }

with this code also if user clicks on 'Cancel' in IE8 the default navigation dialog will appear.