How to detect idle time in JavaScript elegantly?

Question

Is it possible to detect \"idle\" time in JavaScript?
My primary use case probably would be to pre-fetch or preload content.

Idle time:

Answer 1

Without using jQuery, only vanilla JavaScript:

var inactivityTime = function () {
    var time;
    window.onload = resetTimer;
    // DOM Events
    document.onmousemove = resetTimer;
    document.onkeypress = resetTimer;

    function logout() {
        alert("You are now logged out.")
        //location.href = 'logout.html'
    }

    function resetTimer() {
        clearTimeout(time);
        time = setTimeout(logout, 3000)
        // 1000 milliseconds = 1 second
    }
};

And init the function where you need it (for example: onPageLoad).

window.onload = function() {
  inactivityTime(); 
}

You can add more DOM events if you need to. Most used are:

document.onload = resetTimer;
document.onmousemove = resetTimer;
document.onmousedown = resetTimer; // touchscreen presses
document.ontouchstart = resetTimer;
document.onclick = resetTimer;     // touchpad clicks
document.onkeydown = resetTimer;   // onkeypress is deprectaed
document.addEventListener('scroll', resetTimer, true); // improved; see comments

Or register desired events using an array

window.addEventListener('load', resetTimer, true);
var events = ['mousedown', 'mousemove', 'keypress', 'scroll', 'touchstart'];
events.forEach(function(name) {
 document.addEventListener(name, resetTimer, true); 
});

DOM Events list: http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/dom_obj_event.asp

Remember use window, or document according your needs. Here you can see the differences between them: What is the difference between window, screen, and document in Javascript?

Code Updated with @frank-conijn and @daxchen improve: window.onscroll will not fire if scrolling is inside a scrollable element, because scroll events don't bubble. window.addEventListener('scroll', resetTimer, true), the third argument tells the listener to catch event during capture phase instead of bubble phase.

Answer 2

I use this approach, since you don't need to constantly reset the time when an event fires, instead we just record the time, this generates the idle start point.

           function idle(WAIT_FOR_MINS, cb_isIdle) {
            var self = this, 
                idle,
                ms = (WAIT_FOR_MINS || 1) * 60000,
                lastDigest = new Date(),
                watch;
            //document.onmousemove = digest;
            document.onkeypress = digest;
            document.onclick = digest;

            function digest() {
               lastDigest = new Date(); 
            }
            // 1000 milisec = 1 sec
            watch = setInterval(function(){
                if (new Date() - lastDigest > ms && cb_isIdel) {
                    clearInterval(watch);
                    cb_isIdle();
                }

            }, 1000*60);    
        },

Answer 3

Try this code, it works perfectly.

var IDLE_TIMEOUT = 10; //seconds
var _idleSecondsCounter = 0;

document.onclick = function () {
    _idleSecondsCounter = 0;
};

document.onmousemove = function () {
    _idleSecondsCounter = 0;
};

document.onkeypress = function () {
    _idleSecondsCounter = 0;
};

window.setInterval(CheckIdleTime, 1000);

function CheckIdleTime() {
    _idleSecondsCounter++;
    var oPanel = document.getElementById("SecondsUntilExpire");
    if (oPanel)
        oPanel.innerHTML = (IDLE_TIMEOUT - _idleSecondsCounter) + "";
    if (_idleSecondsCounter >= IDLE_TIMEOUT) {
        alert("Time expired!");
        document.location.href = "SessionExpired.aspx";
    }
}

Answer 4

The problem with all these solutions, although correct, they are impractical, when taking into account the session timeout valuable set, using PHP, .NET or in the Application.cfc file for Coldfusion developers. The time set by the above solution needs to sync with the server side session timeout. If the two do not sync, you can run into problems that will just frustrate and confuse your users. For example, the server side session timeout might be set to 60 minutes, but the user may believe that he/she is safe, because the JavaScript idle time capture has increased the total amount of time a user can spend on a single page. The user may have spent time filling in a long form, and then goes to submit it. The session timeout might kick in before the form submission is processed. I tend to just give my users 180 minutes, and then use JavaScript to automatically log the user out. Essentially, using some of the code above, to create a simple timer, but without the capturing mouse event part. In this way my client side & server side time syncs perfectly. There is no confusion, if you show the time to the user in your UI, as it reduces. Each time a new page is accessed in the CMS, the server side session & JavaScript timer are reset. Simple & elegant. If a user stays on a single page for more than 180 minutes, I figure there is something wrong with the page, in the first place.

Answer 5

<script type="text/javascript">
var idleTime = 0;
$(document).ready(function () {
    //Increment the idle time counter every minute.
    idleInterval = setInterval(timerIncrement, 60000); // 1 minute

    //Zero the idle timer on mouse movement.
    $('body').mousemove(function (e) {
     //alert("mouse moved" + idleTime);
     idleTime = 0;
    });

    $('body').keypress(function (e) {
      //alert("keypressed"  + idleTime);
        idleTime = 0;
    });



    $('body').click(function() {
      //alert("mouse moved" + idleTime);
       idleTime = 0;
    });

});

function timerIncrement() {
    idleTime = idleTime + 1;
    if (idleTime > 10) { // 10 minutes

        window.location.assign("http://www.google.com");
    }
}
</script> 

I think this jquery code is perfect one , though copied and modified from above answers!! donot forgot to include jquery library in your file!

Answer 6

I have tested this code working file:

var timeout = null;
    var timee = '4000'; // default time for session time out.
    $(document).bind('click keyup mousemove', function(event) {

    if (timeout !== null) {
            clearTimeout(timeout);
        }
        timeout = setTimeout(function() {
              timeout = null;
            console.log('Document Idle since '+timee+' ms');
            alert("idle window");
        }, timee);
    });