Warn to Save before leaving a page...

#1 July 20th, 2005, 11:03 AM

I've got a form that's nested in a larger application. I need to
program it so that the user is warned to save upon clicking on any
exit point in the application.

So, if they click on any of the nav buttons in the header/nav bar,
they need to get an alert:

"Would you like to continue without saving your changes?"
_Yes_ _No_

It would be a big pain to retrofit the application's nav
buttons/framework for just these forms, so I'm looking for a solution
that doesn't require editing the source code of the application's
existing navigation.

What are my options?

BTW, this application is for IE 5+ only, FWIW.

Thanks,
Jamie

#2 July 20th, 2005, 11:03 AM

Jamie Jackson wrote:[color=blue]
> So, if they click on any of the nav buttons in the header/nav bar,
> they need to get an alert:
>
> "Would you like to continue without saving your changes?"
> _Yes_ _No_[/color]

<body onunload="if (confirm('Save changes?')) { doSomethingHere(); }">

#3 July 20th, 2005, 11:03 AM

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 00:31:24 +0100, bengee
<postmaster@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
[color=blue]
>Jamie Jackson wrote:[color=green]
>> So, if they click on any of the nav buttons in the header/nav bar,
>> they need to get an alert:
>>
>> "Would you like to continue without saving your changes?"
>> _Yes_ _No_[/color]
>
><body onunload="if (confirm('Save changes?')) { doSomethingHere(); }">[/color]

Great! It still requires me to modify the application framework, but
at least it's only in one place (good news). :)

Thanks very much,
Jamie

#4 July 20th, 2005, 11:03 AM

On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 09:53:11 -0400, Jamie Jackson
<wasteNOSPAMbasket@bigfoot.com> wrote:
[color=blue]
>On Fri, 10 Oct 2003 00:31:24 +0100, bengee
><postmaster@localhost.localdomain> wrote:
>[color=green]
>>Jamie Jackson wrote:[color=darkred]
>>> So, if they click on any of the nav buttons in the header/nav bar,
>>> they need to get an alert:
>>>
>>> "Would you like to continue without saving your changes?"
>>> _Yes_ _No_[/color]
>>
>><body onunload="if (confirm('Save changes?')) { doSomethingHere(); }">[/color]
>
>Great! It still requires me to modify the application framework, but
>at least it's only in one place (good news). :)[/color]

I think this isn't going to work. AFAIK, by the time you get the
confirmation, you've already unloaded the page, and are halfway to the
next. Is there a way to prevent the unLoad from continuing, when the
user confirms in the negative?

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how to do this without
retrofitting all of the nav links.

I think I may be on to something with the following, would someone
please let me know if I'm going in the right direction, or if there's
an easier way, or if there's a solution to the onUnload issue above?

function changeLinks(d) {
// this picks up all the links but those in my popup nav :-( ...it's
a start, though
for (var i=0; i < d.links.length; i++) {
// maybe save each link's old location into an array here, for
later use

// now, rewrite each link to a confirm. later, code the following
to load a new window with the old url?
d.links[i].href = "javascript: confirm('Exit before saving?')";
}
}
changeLinks(document);

Thanks,
Jamie

#5 July 20th, 2005, 11:03 AM

Jamie Jackson wrote:[color=blue]
> I think this isn't going to work. AFAIK, by the time you get the
> confirmation, you've already unloaded the page, and are halfway to the
> next. Is there a way to prevent the unLoad from continuing, when the
> user confirms in the negative?[/color]

I think you're right there... the page is already on it's way to
"unloading" and i don't think that can be stopped.
[color=blue]
> I'm racking my brain trying to figure out how to do this without
> retrofitting all of the nav links.
>
> I think I may be on to something with the following, would someone
> please let me know if I'm going in the right direction, or if there's
> an easier way, or if there's a solution to the onUnload issue above?
>
> function changeLinks(d) {
> // this picks up all the links but those in my popup nav :-( ...it's
> a start, though
> for (var i=0; i < d.links.length; i++) {
> // maybe save each link's old location into an array here, for
> later use
>
> // now, rewrite each link to a confirm. later, code the following
> to load a new window with the old url?
> d.links[i].href = "javascript: confirm('Exit before saving?')";
> }
> }
> changeLinks(document);[/color]

This looks like a good way of doing it. Change the href's to something
like :-

d.links[i].href = "javascript: if (confirm('Exit?')) {
document.location.href = 'somefile.htm'; } else { void(0); }";

Hope this works!!

Ben

#6 July 20th, 2005, 11:04 AM

Thanks again Ben,

Here's what I came up with:

<script language="JavaScript1.2">
function promptBeforeExiting (oldLink) {
if (confirm("Exit without saving?")) {
window.location = oldLink;
}
}

function switchLinks(d) {
var oldLink="";
for (var i=0; i < d.links.length; i++) {
oldLink = d.links[i].href;
d.links[i].href = "javascript: promptBeforeExiting('"+ oldLink + "')";
}
}
switchLinks(document);
</script>

It's working very well for <a href>s, and now I've got to figure out
how to disable my popup links as well...

Thanks,
Jamie

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