How to quit a full screen web app

Question

We are trying to get our web app to run as a full screen web app. I got this to work using these meta tags:

    <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes">
    <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style" content="default">
    <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-title" content="Full Screen">

So now when you launch the web app from your home screen on iPhone or android devices, it will launch into full screen (with no browser controls).

Now we need a way to allow the user to quit, I was hoping to create a menu that had a quit button but using window.close() gives me the following error in chrome:

Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it.

What would be the correct way to handle this?

Answer 1

One way to close a full screen mode is to use the following script:

 function exitFullScreen(element) { 
        var requestMethod = element.exitFullscreen ||
                                                  element.mozCancelFullScreen || 
                                                  element.webkitExitFullscreen || 
                                                  element.msExitFullscreen; 
         if (requestMethod) { 
               requestMethod.call(element); 
         } else { 
               console.log("Oops. Request method false."); 
          } 
     }

And then call it it like:

       var $smallscreenButton = $("#smallscreen-button"); 
       $smallscreenButton.on("click", function() { 
                    var elem = document;
                    exitFullScreen(elem); 
        });

The error you phased with window.close() is that you should have opened the window inside same javascript with window.open() and then it should have closed correctly. You just cannot close random windows with javascript, that's why you cannot call close without opening first.

So,sth like:

 var myWindow = window.open();
 myWindow.close(); // this works.

Sources:

[1] How can we programmatically enter and exit the fullscreen mode in javascript?

[2] window.close() doesn't work - Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by it

Answer 2

Here's a nice tutorial on How to user HTML5 fullscreen api

From that, to exit Full screen:

if (document.exitFullscreen) {
    document.exitFullscreen();
} else if (document.webkitExitFullscreen) {
    document.webkitExitFullscreen();
} else if (document.mozCancelFullScreen) {
    document.mozCancelFullScreen();
} else if (document.msExitFullscreen) {
    document.msExitFullscreen();
}

You can write the above code in any DOM element's click method like, say using jquery:

$("#exitFullScreen").click(function(){
    // the above code
        if (document.exitFullscreen) {
        document.exitFullscreen();
    } else if (document.webkitExitFullscreen) {
        document.webkitExitFullscreen();
    } else if (document.mozCancelFullScreen) {
        document.mozCancelFullScreen();
    } else if (document.msExitFullscreen) {
        document.msExitFullscreen();
    }
});

Other references:

1. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/API/DOM/Using_full_screen_mode

2. http://davidwalsh.name/fullscreen

3. http://johndyer.name/native-fullscreen-javascript-api-plus-jquery-plugin/

4. http://updates.html5rocks.com/2011/10/Let-Your-Content-Do-the-Talking-Fullscreen-API