Sending API call before page reload or close using React

Question

I am trying to send information to the backend regarding the state of the application at page reload/close. Is there a way to detect these two actions and call an API before proceeding?

Answer 1

You can use thew window.unload event (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Events/unload).

Put the code below in some point of you code (I suggest in the index.html or some entry point of the app):

window.addEventListener('unload', function(event) {
   //call function to save you state in API or save in localStore
   localStore.setItem('state', JSON.stringify(store.getState())
});

I think use componentWillUnmount could not resolve properly your problem, because react could call that event though the browser is not refresh or close.