Search code examples
javascripthtmlangularjswindow

Clear localStorage on tab/browser close but not on refresh


Is there a way to detect tab close event to clear the localStorage. I need localStorage to share data across tabs. window.onbeforeunload event works fine but it has 2 issues for me:

  1. It also fires on page refresh which I dont want.
  2. I don't need confirm box on tab close.

Like when window is closed the sessionStorage is cleared. At same time I can clear localStorage but don't know what event to bind to. I checked a few questions already available but none seems to address this issue there are workarounds by using flags for click on links and form submits but not a clean way to do it. Kindly suggest any solution for this.


Solution

  • I was able to find solution to this and thought of sharing. Since the window.onbeforeunload event fires on browser/tab close but on refresh as well(which i did not want) the thing was my localstorage was being processed at time of rfresh as well. Which I did not want. In order to overcome this I implemented 1 more event handler window.onload that fires only on refresh and not on tab/browser close where I would reset the localStorage as if nothing had happened. The code is:

    window.onbeforeunload = function (e) {
        window.onunload = function () {
                window.localStorage.isMySessionActive = "false";
        }
        return undefined;
    };
    
    window.onload = function () {
                window.localStorage.isMySessionActive = "true";
    };
    

    I returned undefined in window.onbeforeunload as i did not want a confirm popup to appear on tab/browser close and refresh.