DOM Window unload event, is it reliable?

javascript dom browser onunload
bhseo picture bhseo · Oct 20, 2009 · Viewed 12.1k times · Source

Can I rely on the window unload event to be triggered when a user closes a tab/window/browser?

Edit:

Found a list of what triggers the unload event in IE. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms536973%28VS.85%29.aspx

I would like to know in which edge cases the unload event won't be triggered.

Answer

scunliffe picture scunliffe · Oct 20, 2009

You will likely want to use the "onbeforeunload" event too, it provides more control than the "onunload" event.

That said, be aware that: Opera doesn’t fire the unload event when the browser refreshes the page, or uses the back/forward buttons to browse off of the page. What’s worse, Opera never fires the onbeforeunload event. Thus if you are supporting Opera - be aware of these issues.

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