Question

I want to disable browser refreshing using JavaScript.

Currently, I am using window.onbeforeunload and I don’t want it to be called when user refreshes the browser.

What is the best way to do it?

Answer 1

Update A recent comment claims this doesn’t work in the new Chrome … As shown in jsFiddle, and tested on my personal site, this method still works as of Chrome ver 26.0.1410.64 m

This is REALLY easy in jQuery by the way:

jsFiddle

// slight update to account for browsers not supporting e.which
function disableF5(e) { if ((e.which || e.keyCode) == 116) e.preventDefault(); };
// To disable f5
    /* jQuery < 1.7 */
$(document).bind("keydown", disableF5);
/* OR jQuery >= 1.7 */
$(document).on("keydown", disableF5);

// To re-enable f5
    /* jQuery < 1.7 */
$(document).unbind("keydown", disableF5);
/* OR jQuery >= 1.7 */
$(document).off("keydown", disableF5);

On a side note:
This only disables the f5 button on the keyboard.
To truly disable refresh you must use a server side script to check for page state changes.
Can’t say I really know how to do this as I haven’t done it yet.

On the software site that I work at, we use my disableF5 function in conjunction with Codeigniter’s session data. For instance, there is a lock button which will lock the screen and prompt a password dialog. The function “disableF5” is quick and easy and keeps that button from doing anything. However, to prevent the mouse-click on refresh button, a couple things take place.

1. When lock is clicked, user session data has a variable called “locked” that becomes TRUE
2. When the refresh button is clicked, on the master page load method is a check against session data for “locked”, if TRUE, then we simple don’t allow the redirect and the page never changes, regardless of requested destination

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TIP: Try using a server-set cookie, such as PHP’s $_SESSION, or even .Net’s Response.Cookies, to maintain “where” your client is in your site. This is the more Vanilla way to do what I do with CI’s Session class. The big difference being that CI uses a Table in your DB, whereas these vanilla methods store an editable cookie in the client. The downside though, is a user can clear its cookies.