Does anyone know how can I keep the Javascript variable even though the page has been refreshed?

Question

Example:

1. In the main page cliked on a button (NEW), the page then will using Javascript to open a new page in a new window by calling redirectPage().

2. In the main page clicked on a button (EXIT), then page then will call confirmExit(), then closeChildWindows() to closed all popup new window before redirect to another new page.

3. However, the JS variable (childWindowHandles) will be always reset if I refresh the main page, and this cause the page unable to close all other popup window before relocated while EXIT button being clicked

Does anyone know how can I solve this problem? By able to keep the JS variable (childWindowHandles) even the main page being refresh?

var childWindowHandles = new Array();

function redirectPage(url)
{
    childWindowHandles[childWindowHandles.length] = window.open(url)
}

function confirmExit(url)
{
    closeChildWindows()
    window.location=url
}

function closeChildWindows() 
{
    for (var loop=0; loop<childWindowHandles.length; loop++) 
    {
        if (!childWindowHandles[loop].closed)
        {
                childWindowHandles[loop].close();
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

You can use cookies to persist values...

Edit: You might find useful a simple object that I use:

Usage:

// Store a key/value for 1 day:
cookieManager.set('name', 'a value', 1);

// Retrieve a value associated to a key:
var value = cookieManager.get('name');

// Remove a key/value:
cookieManager.remove('name');

Implementation:

var cookieManager = { 
  set: function (name, value, expireDays) { 
    var expireDate = new Date(); 
    expireDate.setDate(expireDate.getDate() + expireDays); 

    document.cookie = name + "=" + escape(value) + 
      ((!expireDays) ? "" : ";expires="+expireDate.toGMTString()); 
  }, 

  get: function (key) { 
    var start,end; 

    if (document.cookie.length > 0) { 
      start = document.cookie.indexOf(key + "="); 

      if (start != -1) { 
        start = start + key.length + 1; 
        end = document.cookie.indexOf(";",start); 

        if (end == -1) { 
          end = document.cookie.length; 
        }
        return unescape(document.cookie.substring(start,end)); 
      }
    }
    return ""; 
  },

  remove: function (key) {
    this.set(key, '', -1);
  }
}