Click here to Skip to main content
15,867,568 members
Articles / Web Development / ASP.NET
Tip/Trick

Quick and dirty way to ask/warn user when navigating off the page.

Rate me:
Please Sign up or sign in to vote.
5.00/5 (3 votes)
20 Feb 2012CPOL1 min read 12.1K   5   2
Problem:
I want to warn user before navigating off the current page that one could lose unsaved data etc.
It may seam trivial, but this was my first beginner's roadblock when shifting from desktop-based to web-based solutions and after some time has passed I felt obliged to share my solution and help some wandering beginner.

Solution:
You can hook up your questioning logic on onbeforeunload event.
In your page's markup you should add following code:
XML
<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
   window.onbeforeunload = confirmExit;

   function confirmExit() {
       return "Ask the user whether he/she really wants na navigate off the page.";
   }

</script>

This will warn user every time.

There is however one major issue - post back, then code shown above becomes major annoyance.
For instance, you don't want to have popup warning when selecting new value from filtering drop down list or when clicking on submitting button...

Easy way to avoid such behavior is to add following code in markup on every control responsible for post back.

window.onbeforeunload = null;

It will stop firing onbeforeunload event and code mentioned above won't execute.
No popup on awkward place :).

for instance
XML
<asp:DropDownList ID="ddlTip" runat="server" DataSourceID="tipSqlDataSource" DataTextField="Naziv" DataValueField="TipArtiklID" AutoPostBack="True" CssClass="dropDownList" onchange="window.onbeforeunload=null">
</asp:DropDownList>

or
XML
<asp:Calendar ID="calendar" runat="server" onclick="window.onbeforeunload=null">
</asp:Calendar>


Some controls (such as buttons), have OnClientClick property where you can easily add desired javascript snippet in code behind as well.
C#
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    if(!this.IsPostBack)
    {
        btnOK.OnClientClick = "window.onbeforeunload=null";
    }
}



I hope this helps.
Please warn me for grammar and spelling mistakes.
And please if you know something better, share it!

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer
Croatia Croatia
Software engineer.

Mostly back-end, but I do some Angular as well.
I've started with C/C++, now I almost exclusively work with .Net.
SQL follows along.

I believe I have earned moniker of mature programmer Smile | :) .

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralReason for my vote of 5 Nice article Pin
♥…ЯҠ…♥21-Feb-12 17:47
professional♥…ЯҠ…♥21-Feb-12 17:47 
GeneralRe: Thank you! Pin
Oshtri Deka21-Feb-12 21:19
professionalOshtri Deka21-Feb-12 21:19 

General General    News News    Suggestion Suggestion    Question Question    Bug Bug    Answer Answer    Joke Joke    Praise Praise    Rant Rant    Admin Admin   

Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.