How to automatically close webpage using javascript?

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.NET4.6

Hey everybody,

I have found many questions like mine in different forums, but I couldn't find an answer that actually helps to solve my problem in any of them.

Basically, what I want is to open an URL through command prompt, it will open the browser, processes a webpage, and then I would like it to automatically close.

Why do I need this?
I have an application that runs on IIS. There are some routines I need to run everyday in my application. I can simply kick of these routines by running an URL similar to the showed below:

http://myapplication.com/DoStuff.aspx?

The Problem is that this is totally manual.
I was wondering if I could create a batch file calling my URL "start http://myapplication.com/DoStuff.aspx?", and then I could create a task on Windows to run that batch file everyday. That works for me except that the browser will not close automatically.
What I mean is, I could try it, but at the end of a week, I would have at least 5 windows opened.

What I have tried:

I have tried to solve it by using javascript, but I always end up getting this message:

scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it

It does not matter the javascript function I create using "window.close()", the windows won't close.

Chrome and Firefox returns that message.
IE let's me try to close the window, but it asks in a popUp if I really want to close it.

Posted 15-May-17 7:24am

Arthur Medeiros

Updated 16-May-17 4:44am

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Richard Deeming · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-16T04:44:00

Solution 1

You're trying to answer the wrong question. :)

Don't try to find a way to use Javascript to close the browser window. Even if you find a hack to let you do that, it will be a bug in the browser, and will most likely be patched, breaking your script.

Instead, use a different tool to make the request. For example, Powershell can request a URL without opening it in a browser:

$url = "http://myapplication.com/DoStuff.aspx?"
$webclient = new-object System.Net.WebClient
$webclient.UseDefaultCredentials = $True
$webpage = $webclient.DownloadString($url)

Posted 16-May-17 4:44am

Richard Deeming

Comments

Arthur Medeiros 17-May-17 13:27pm

Hey Richard,
Thank you for the suggestion and for showing me the right direction to solve my problem.
That actually did not work for me, but without your suggestion I would not be looking into powershell stuff. Therefore, I used "Invoke-WebRequest".
It worked, but there is something wrong in my code with date conversion. Once I solve it, powershell might be the solution.

Richard Deeming 17-May-17 13:33pm

Invoke-WebRequest[^] looks like a handy command. I don't think it was available when I wrote my script to "wake up" the SQL reporting services site. :)