window close?

[adamlacombe]

I have googled everything possible to find the answer to this.

I need to use javascript to close a window, but when it closes I need it to run some php:

<?php
if($windowcloses){
   $fp = fopen("chat.html", 'a');
   fwrite($fp, "<i>User <a href='index.php?action=profile&username=". $_SESSION['username'] ."'>". $_SESSION['username'] ."</a> has left the chat session.</i><br>");
   fclose($fp);
?>

 

is that possible, and if so what is the code I need to use?

Thanks in advanced!

[citricsquid]

It's impossible to be 100% accurate in knowing if a user closes the page. If you're building a chat application you'll be constantly polling the server, correct? So have the server check if the user is still polling, you can assume if after xx seconds the user hasn't polled that they're no longer connected. You shouldn't rely on the client to provide disconnection/connection messages, user the serverside to do that.

[adamlacombe]

well im having the chat in a popup window with no other links, so when the user clicks log out of chat or closes the window it runs that php.

it may not be a great idea but any idea on how to do it?

[haku]

You can do this with AJAX, adding a handler to the logout link that hits a php script on the server, and using onbeforeunload for the close button. Only problem being that onbeforeunload is not fully crossbrowser compatible, and therefor won't work on all browsers.

[marynorth21]

It's kinda hard to implement with AJAX but it worked on me.