[javascript] Confirmation before closing of tab/browser

How to ask confirmation from user before he leaves the page as in gmail?

I searched for this question in various places, but all that they mention is the use of javascript window.unload & window.onbeforeunload. Also it doesn't work in chrome most of the times as it gets blocked.

I read comments on answer set as Okay. Most of the user are asking that the button and some links click should be allowed. Here one more line is added to the existing code that will work.

<script type="text/javascript">
  var hook = true;
  window.onbeforeunload = function() {
    if (hook) {

      return "Did you save your stuff?"
    }
  }
  function unhook() {
    hook=false;
  }

Call unhook() onClick for button and links which you want to allow. E.g.

<a href="#" onClick="unhook()">This link will allow navigation</a>

Simply

function goodbye(e) {
        if(!e) e = window.event;
        //e.cancelBubble is supported by IE - this will kill the bubbling process.
        e.cancelBubble = true;
        e.returnValue = 'You sure you want to leave?'; //This is displayed on the dialog

        //e.stopPropagation works in Firefox.
        if (e.stopPropagation) {
            e.stopPropagation();
            e.preventDefault();
        }
    }
window.onbeforeunload=goodbye;

If you want to ask based on condition:

var ask = true
window.onbeforeunload = function (e) {
    if(!ask) return null
    e = e || window.event;
    //old browsers
    if (e) {e.returnValue = 'Sure?';}
    //safari, chrome(chrome ignores text)
    return 'Sure?';
};

Try this:

<script>
    window.onbeforeunload = function(e) {
       return 'Dialog text here.';
    };
</script>

more info here MDN.

The shortest solution for the year 2020 (for those happy people who don't need to support IE)

Tested in Chrome, Firefox, Safari.

function onBeforeUnload(e) {
    if (thereAreUnsavedChanges()) {
        e.preventDefault();
        e.returnValue = '';
        return;
    }

    delete e['returnValue'];
}

window.addEventListener('beforeunload', onBeforeUnload);

Actually no one modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari) displays the "return value" as a question to user. Instead they show their own confirmation text (it depends on browser). But we still need to return some (even empty) string to trigger that confirmation on Chrome.

More explanations see on MDN here and here.