Prompting user to save when they leave a page

Question

I need to prompt a user to save their work when they leave a page. I\'ve tried onbeforeunload but I need to show a styled prompt not the usual dialog box. Facebook has manag

Answer 1

Take a closer look at what Facebook is doing: you get a prompt if you click a link on the page, but nothing when entering a new URL in the address bar, clicking a bookmark, or navigating Back in your browser's history.

If that works for you, it's easy enough to do: simply add a click event handler to every link on the page, and trigger your stylized confirmation from it. Since these handlers will get called prior to the start of any navigation events triggered from within the page itself, you can pretty much do whatever you want in the handler - save data, cancel the event entirely, record the intended destination and postpone it 'till after they confirm...

However, if you do need or want to respond to navigation events triggered externally, you'll have to use onbeforeunload. And yes, the dialog is crappy, and you can't cancel the event - that's the price we pay for all the scandalous idiots abusing such features back in the '90s. Sorry...