In the manual:

Enable users to log out of the solution

It is important that web users properly close their sessions by opening the menu bar and then clicking Log Out. If they close the browser window or quit the browser before logging out, their sessions may still be open, which might: 

".....may still be open......, i don't understand, yes or not.

i made some test,

 on mac and safari when i close the tab of the browser it close also the session,

Last ios  and safari remain still open.

look as a bug or i am doing something wrong?

I don't know why it behaves differently but those *ARE* different OSes.... my expectation would be though that closing the tab or closing the browser does not automatically kill their WebD session on the server...

You can also script their log out by giving them a nice fat button that does an "exit application" if that helps.

Hi Franco,

I find it odd that Safari on Mac would close a webd session when closing a tab/window. The expected behavior would be that they still show up in the admin console with a session until it times out, unless they explicitly log out.

I tested also android on samsung and the problem is like for ios, it doen't close the connection.

in the next week i hope to find a tablet with windows 10 to make the same test.

Closing the browser tab the onclosewindow trigger doesn't work, then the differents are dipendent on the browser app or os.

could be filemaker that "push" to use filemakergo!!!!!

4 hours ago, Franco Pagano said:

could be filemaker that "push" to use filemakergo!!!!!

 

Let's not get paranoid.  FMI has spent and is still spending enormous resources on WebDirect...

This is not a FileMaker issue, there is no reliable way to call javascript when a browser window is closed. It is the same with any web app.

Mike, javascript are involved always,  only the tablet browsers don't close the connection, pc and mac browser when you close the tab it close the connection, tested.

I guess what Mike and I are saying: it is what it is; you can't control WebDirect's behaviour at the moment a tab or a browser is closed.

Test by your self, from mac or pc closing web browser tab the connection is closed, from ios or android the connection remain there.

Then is true about ios or android, my surprise is about mac and pc, how is possible that its close the connection?

I have the developer filemaker server 14 that have only 1 connection then i can't make mistake.

 

21 hours ago, Franco Pagano said:

Mike, javascript are involved always,  only the tablet browsers don't close the connection, pc and mac browser when you close the tab it close the connection, tested.

The issue is that you need javascript to run when the windows is closed, and that most browsers on most operating systems do not evaluate javascript events looking for something to run, they just close the window. That applies to all other web pages as well, not just webdirect sites. Is the concern for security or to free concurrent licenses on the server? If it is the latter, then I would try to make an obvious log out button, otherwise the sessions will log out after an amount of time passes.

31 minutes ago, Franco Pagano said:

Test by your self,

I think we are misunderstanding each other.  I am not saying that you are wrong.

I am saying that there is nothing you can do about it.  Except report it as a bug to FMI.

 

54 minutes ago, Mike Duncan said:

most browsers on most operating systems do not evaluate javascript events looking for something to run, they just close the window.

That's simply not true. JavaScript has not one, but two events that occur when the user navigates (or tries to navigate) away from the page: onunload and onbeforeunload.

According to the MDN page on window.onunload, the event is supported by all major browsers - desktop and mobile alike. OTOH, the window.onbeforeunload event is supported by all desktop browsers, but probably not by any of the mobile ones - and explicitly not by Safari.

I don't know what WebDirect uses (if anything at all), but if the page source contains an onbeforeunload event handler, that could explain OP's findings.

Edited February 5, 20169 yr by comment

45 minutes ago, comment said:

That's simply not true. JavaScript has not one, but two events that occur when the user navigates (or tries to navigate) away from the page: onunload and onbeforeunload.

According to the MDN page on window.onunload, the event is supported by all major browsers - desktop and mobile alike. OTOH, the window.onbeforeunload event is supported by all desktop browsers, but probably not by any of the mobile ones - and explicitly not by Safari.

I don't know what WebDirect uses (if anything at all), but if the page source contains an onbeforeunload event handler, that could explain OP's findings.

Comment, I know there are functions for those, but in my experience they cannot be relied on to run, even when they are expected to. You could also have a situation where browsers crash or are force quit, and you have the same situation.

I didn't say they can - or should -  be relied upon. I was merely offering a possible explanation for the differences in behavior between desktop and mobile browsers reported by OP. I haven't tested this myself, and (like you and Wim) I would expect closing the window to have no effect.