Match string with clicked URL on unload of current page

Question

I have a form with URL:

localhost:83/mysite/item/UpdateItems/225

I have a temporary table in which I have loaded data and display in my form from temporary table.

When I refresh the page I don't want to fire an ajax call and truncate the table. But if I click on another link from menu then I do want to fire the ajax call and truncate tables.

Is it possible?

I have used beforeunload for truncate table when click on another menu:

 $(window).on('beforeunload', function(){
     //My ajax code for truncate table
});

But this works on page refresh also, which I don't want. So I tried with matching string in URL:

$(window).on('beforeunload', function(e){
    if (document.URL.indexOf("UpdateItems") > -1) {

        console.log("page refresh");

     }else{
         console.log("not refreshed");  
      }
});

But this always go in first page refresh condition even if I have clicked on another menu.

Answer 1

Try this , it will definitely work,

    <SCRIPT language="javascript">

    window.onbeforeunload=before;

    function before(evt)
    {
       if(window.location.toString().indexOf("UpdateItems") > -1) { 

        console.log("page refresh");

       }
       else{
         console.log('Not');
       }
    }
    </script>

Answer 2

If (and this is a pretty big if) the refresh is done by clicking a link on the page (and not say from a script or by the user clicking the browsers refresh button) this approach might work:

Set a flag to false whenever someone click a link that should not lead to the table being truncated, and only run the code if the flag is true:

// As default the flag is true.
flagTruncate = true;

// When someone clicks a link with UpdateItems in the URL, the flag is  set to false.
$("a[href*='UpdateItems']").click(function () {
    flagTruncate = false;
});

//Only truncate the table when the user is leaving if the flag is still true.
$(window).on('beforeunload', function() {
    if(flagTruncate) {
        //Truncate the table.
    }
});