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Asked: 2026-06-09T20:23:23+00:00

I have been battling for the past two days with the evil onbeforeunload function

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I have been battling for the past two days with the evil onbeforeunload function in JavaScript. I have a function that warns the user when they are about to close a page.
However before the page close I would like to submit the form using JavaScript’s .submit().

This is my code:

function setPopUpWindow(submitForm){
    window.onbeforeunload = function () {
        if (submitForm == false ) {
        //alert("It worked");   --This code gets called so I know it works  
        document.getElementById("CancelScripting").submit();
        //return "Unsaved Data would be lost";
        }
        
    }
}

In my html I have two buttons, one is (supposed to) trigger the .submit() and the other will just ignore it.

<body>
 <form action=tett.html id="popUpForm" method=POST>
<script>setPopUpWindow();</script>
<input type="submit" id="submit_button" onclick="setPopUpWindow(true);">
<input class=b1 type=submit id="CancelScripting"  style="visibility:hidden"  value="CancelScripting" >
</body>

The `setPopWindow value for the second input is not defined so it would be false.
For some reason the submit is not working well.

————————Edit to my question———————————————–
I would like to submit the form even if the user leaves the page by closing the X button on their window. This is the reason why I have the hidden button… Looks like people misunderstood my question.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The only thing you can do is to ask the user if they really want to leave the page:

    <head>
    <script type="text/javascript">
        var submitForm = false;
        window.onbeforeunload = function () {
            if(submitForm == false){
                return 'You have an unfinished form ...';
            }
        }
        function setPopUpWindow(type){
            submitForm = true;
        }
    </script>
</head>
<body>
   <form action="" method="post" name="SubmitForm" id="SubmitForm">
      <input type="submit" id="submit_button" onclick="setPopUpWindow(true);">
   </form>
</body>
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