Where did that window go?

November 21, 2006 7:53 AM

Javascript / HTML : Let's say I have a page called 'foo.html' that opens a new window using the command window.open('http://ask.metafilter.com','newWindow'). Now let's say I navigate AWAY from my original page 'foo.html' to a page call 'bar.html' still leaving 'newWindow' open. Is there anyway I can get a handle on 'newWindow' from 'bar.html' even though I have navigated away from its opener 'foo.html'? I basically want to be able to change the url of 'newWindow' at anytime from any page on my website. Alternate solutions accepted.
posted by jasondigitized to Technology (4 answers total)

You could turn your homepage into a frameset and put a zero-height frame along the bottom while loading foo.html essentially full-size in the top, and then run all of your DOM stuff either in the frameset or the hidden frame. Then it wouldn't really matter if they navigated away from foo.html since that's not where the objects are based.

I did something similar once and it worked fine; it was a while ago so I don't have the precise code for passing handles between parent and child frames, but I think it's easier than passing them from request to request (if that latter is even possible). Good luck.
posted by rkent at 8:08 AM on November 21, 2006

Not really Javascript, but if you put target="whatever" in links you want to open in the window, the first link clicked will open a new window and, as long as you use the same name for target, every subsequent link will also open in that window.
posted by cillit bang at 8:10 AM on November 21, 2006

Anything that sends a URI to newWindow will refresh newWindow. So if bar.html contains the following link: <a href="grit.html" target="newWindow">, then grit.html will open in newWindow.

On preview: what cillit bang says.
posted by ardgedee at 8:24 AM on November 21, 2006

Your javascript will, likewise keep sending the URL to the same window. So "window.open(URL1,'newWindow',[config])" followed by "window.open(URL2,'newWindow',[config])" will open URL2 in the same window as URL1. If the window with URL1 has been closed, it'll just open another one with the same name.
posted by mkultra at 8:26 AM on November 21, 2006