onbeforeunload => logout if closed? Working in IE only!

[student101]

Had a question regarding logging out users who don't click Logout, who instead just close the browser.

I have two scripts pretty much the same but they only work in IE due to that fact that onbeforeunload was implemented for IE.

The latest version;

window.onbeforeunload = confirmExit;
var aClick=false;  
function confirmExit(e){  
if(document.all)e = event;  
if(!e)e=window.event;  
if(e){  
if(aClick==false && (e.target==document || e.clientX<0 || e.clientY<0)) {  

//alert("Logging out...");   
// Add server call to logout the user

/* Original code commented out because of page refresh, page reloads or form submits.

alert('about to open the window');
ajaxCall("http://example.com/logout.php");
*/
//adding this allows for page refresh, page reloads or form submits in IE only
function open_win() {
ajaxCall("http://example.com/logout.php");
}
open_win()

}
}
}
function ajaxCall(dname){
var xmlDoc;
if (window.XMLHttpRequest){
xmlDoc = new window.XMLHttpRequest();
xmlDoc.open("GET", dname, false);
xmlDoc.send("");
//alert(xmlDoc.responseText); //Hide blank alert boxes.
//return xmlDoc.responseXML; //Comment out - not needed.
// IE 5 and IE 6
}else if (ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")){
xmlDoc = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM");
xmlDoc.async = false;
xmlDoc.load(dname);
//alert(xmlDoc.responseText); //Hide blank alert boxes.
//return xmlDoc; //Comment out - not needed.
}
//alert("Error loading document"); //Hide blank alert boxes.
return null;
} 

Is there any method or way to get this to work in Firefox?
If Yes, how?

[student101]

I've searched and not once has this question been answered along with any kind of code that works.

[thenajsays]

why not just use php session cookies instead?

[student101]

Can it logout the user if they haven't clicked the logout, who instead closed the window?

Edit: On my search for this method, haven't seen one example?

Searching for php session cookies brings up different methods of doing this.
Will explore...
Thank you!

[thenajsays]

it does it automatically i believe... im still learning php, but theres A LOT you can do... let me look and see how i did it and ill get back to you

[thenajsays]

ok, first things first, every page that you want the session to be vaild for, you have to have:

<?php
session_start();
?>

BEFORE ANY HTML
then, you need to have a little snippet of code like this somewhere to check if the session has been initialized, like this:

<?php
if (!isset($_SESSION['cookieName']))
{
    /*Do something*/
} else
{
    /*Do something else*/
}
?>

and finally, in your log in validation, if the username and password match the data base, you have to initialize the cookie:

   $_SESSION['cookieName'] = 'sessionID'; 

the session ID can be a variable (such as the username)
oh... one more thing... on the log out page you need to destroy the session, like so:

<?php
session_start();
session_destroy();
?>

again, that has to go BEFORE any HTML

[student101]

Good one, you got the jump on me.
Cool let me play, read and post.

Luckily you brought this up.
Thanks again thenajsays!

[thenajsays]

dont forget to click the thanks button for me! and let me know how it turns out!

[student101]

Did that, just woke up.
Off to code!

Cheers