IE onbeforeunload not firing ExtenralInterface callback.

Question

I have a Flash movie embeded with swfobject in a html container. Through ExternalInterface I have registered a javascript function to fire callback to my flash app.

ExternalInterface.addCallback("notifyClose", notifyOnClose );

The javascript function is added as an event listerner to fire onbeforeunload.

<script language="JavaScript">

        function getSWF(movieName) {
            if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1){
               return window[movieName];
            }else { return document[movieName];}
        }           

        var bye = function() {
            getSWF('flashContainer').notifyClose('> WE ARE CLOSING APP!');
            //alert('WE ARE CLOSING APP!.');
        };

        var hola = function(){
            getSWF('flashContainer').notifyClose('> WE ARE opening APP!');
            alert('WE ARE opening APP!.');
        };

        if(window.addEventListener) {
            window.addEventListener('load', hola,false);
            window.addEventListener('beforeunload', bye, false);
        } else if (window.attachEvent) {
            window.attachEvent('onload', hola);
            window.attachEvent('onbeforeunload', bye);
        }

</script>

I have tested in FF and IE. Firefox works as expected but not in IE. In IE I get notified in Flash with the onload message, but not onbeforeunload.

Is it some king of sandbox restriction? Just bad code?

Answer 1

The problem is the "on" in your code below in the attachEvent().

if(window.addEventListener) {
            window.addEventListener('load', hola,false);
            window.addEventListener('beforeunload', bye, false);
        } else if (window.attachEvent) {
            window.attachEvent('onload', hola);
            window.attachEvent('onbeforeunload', bye);
        }

Try something like the code below for your Event Listener code and see the following link for more information: http://bytes.com/topic/javascript/answers/147027-addeventlistener-function-ie

//*** This code is copyright 2003 by Gavin Kistner, [email protected]
//*** It is covered under the license viewable at http://phrogz.net/JS/_ReuseLicense.txt
//*** Reuse or modification is free provided you abide by the terms of that license.
//*** (Including the first two lines above in your source code satisfies the conditions.)


//***Cross browser attach event function. For 'evt' pass a string value with the leading "on" omitted
//***e.g. AttachEvent(window,'load',MyFunctionNameWithoutParenthesis,false);

function AttachEvent(obj,evt,fnc,useCapture){
    if (!useCapture) useCapture=false;
    if (obj.addEventListener){
        obj.addEventListener(evt,fnc,useCapture);
        return true;
    } else if (obj.attachEvent) return obj.attachEvent("on"+evt,fnc);
    else{
        MyAttachEvent(obj,evt,fnc);
        obj['on'+evt]=function(){ MyFireEvent(obj,evt) };
    }
} 

//The following are for browsers like NS4 or IE5Mac which don't support either
//attachEvent or addEventListener
function MyAttachEvent(obj,evt,fnc){
    if (!obj.myEvents) obj.myEvents={};
    if (!obj.myEvents[evt]) obj.myEvents[evt]=[];
    var evts = obj.myEvents[evt];
    evts[evts.length]=fnc;
}
function MyFireEvent(obj,evt){
    if (!obj || !obj.myEvents || !obj.myEvents[evt]) return;
    var evts = obj.myEvents[evt];
    for (var i=0,len=evts.length;i<len;i++) evts[i]();
}