Question

Is there any way that I can define a destructor for an object in JavaScript that will be called automatically when object is discarded?

Im creating my obj like so:

function SomeObject(){
    this.test = null;

    this.method = function(){
      alert("Testing Method");
    };

    this.destroy = function(){
      // Destroy stuff here
    };
}

var test = new SomeObject();

I can call destroy when needed but when the user exits the page I cant call destroy. The reason I need to do this is that I call functions in php using ajax that saves session data. I would like it to destroy the particular session data when im done with that particular js object.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You can’t use a deconstructor for an object, but you can use window.onbeforeunload or window.onunload to do any last-moment adjustments.

If you return a string from onbeforeunload it will prompt the user that string as a confirm dialog as to whether they want to leave. This is useful primarily if you want to prompt the user to save their work or some similar state-preserving action.