Handle refresh page event with JavaScript

javascript dom-events

101,605

Solution 1

You don't want the refresh, you want the onbeforeunload event.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536907(VS.85).aspx

Sample code from article

<HTML>
<head>
<script>
function closeIt()
{
  return "Any string value here forces a dialog box to \n" + 
         "appear before closing the window.";
}
window.onbeforeunload = closeIt;
</script>
</head>
<body>
  <a href="http://www.microsoft.com">Click here to navigate to 
      www.microsoft.com</a>
</body>
</html>

Solution 2

The closest you could get is the window.onbeforeunload event:

window.onbeforeunload = function (e) {
    var e = e || window.event;

    // For IE and Firefox
    if (e) {
        e.returnValue = 'Leaving the page';
    }

    // For Safari
    return 'Leaving the page';
};

It is important to note that you need to return a string from this function.

101,605

tiboo

Nice day to whom read my profile ^^

Updated on July 09, 2022

Comments

tiboo almost 2 years
Is it possible to use JavaScript to handle the event of refreshing page? What I want is get notice if user do one of these behaviours:
- refresh page by pressing F5
- close tab or browser
- enter a new url then press enter on browser
to display a warning message?
Matt Ball over 13 years

I'm pretty sure that you don't need to do anything with e.returnValue for IE/FF. You just need to return a string.
Eliran Malka almost 12 years

@MattBall - it's referring to IE < 8 and Firefox prior to version 4. see the docs on MDN.
Siddharth Sharma over 7 years

Working for the recent version of chrome now :)
Code Doggo over 6 years

Do not work on Chrome's current version 60.0.3112.101 (Official Build) (64-bit).