Make the page for the main window.
This is the page from which your window will be launched. It has both the standard HTML construction and the window launching function. Copy 'n' paste the following code into your text or HTML editor and save it as mypage.html (It's heavily commented for reference. You can safely delete any text that comes after the double forward-slashes--//):
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Page Title Goes Here</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
//Popup Window
//Version 1.0
//Last Updated: November 27, 1998
//Code maintained at: http://www.moock.org/webdesign/javascript/
//Copy permission granted for non-commercial uses. Written by Colin Moock.
var newwin;
function launchwin(winurl,winname,winfeatures,parentname)
{
//This launches a new window if one isn't already launched. If one is launched, it focuses it.
//It works in Nav3+ and MSIE4+, and does not cause errors in IE3. This function requires that the following
//code be called by the ONUNLOAD handler in all pages that reside in the new window:
// if(!document.images){opener.newwin = null}
// Use this when not specifying params from the event handler:
// var parentname = "mainwindow";
// var winurl = "content.html"
// var winname = "newwindow"
// var winfeatures = "height=150,"
// + "width=300,"
// + "channelmode=0,"
// + "dependent=1,"
// + "directories=0,"
// + "fullscreen=0,"
// + "location=0,"
// + "menubar=0,"
// + "resizable=0,"
// + "scrollbars=0,"
// + "status=0,"
// + "toolbar=0,"
// + "screenX=0,"
// + "screeny=0,"
// + "left=0,"
// + "top=0";
//Only use the following attributes with a signed script:
//-------------------------------
// + "hotkeys=1, "
// + "alwaysLowered=0, "
// + "alwaysRaised=0, "
// + "titlebar=0, "
// + "z-lock=0, "
//-------------------------------
if (!document.images) //Quick sniff for IE3. If the browser is IE3, don't check to see if the
//window is already open. Just pretend it's always closed.
{
newwin = null;
}
if (newwin == null || newwin.closed)
//-check for the existence of the window.
//-we check in two ways: 1) is the newwin object null? It should be if we've closed the window
// because we set newwin to null in a function called by the onunload handler.
// And 2) is the newwin.closed property true? We check this second state because Netscape 4.5
// doesn't call the onunload handler when you use the exit button on the window itself. So we
// check the closed property for the benefit of Nav 4.5. Why not just check that? Because IE4
// chokes on it if you do. It's probably a good idea to check both anyway because "closed"
// wouldn't be set before the first time the user launches the window. IE4 doesn't choke if we
// check the status of newwin first.
{
//we've determined that no window is open, so launch one now
newwin = window.open(winurl,winname,winfeatures);
if (newwin.opener == null) // set the opener property manually for Nav 2.0.
{
newwin.opener = window;
}
newwin.opener.name = parentname; // give our parent window a name so we can target it from newwin
}
else
{
//if a window already exists, bring it to the front using windowname.focus()
//(for Nav3+ and IE4+). IE3 will never get here because we force it to think the
//window is always closed. IE3 always launches a new window when launchwin() is called.
//Interestingly, IE3 will focus the newwin the first time we try to recreate it, but not
//any subsequent times.
alert("This link is already open in another window. Click OK to continue.");
newwin.focus();
}
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
</BODY>
</HTML>
Make the page that goes in the new window.
All the pages in your new window must have an ONUNLOAD handler that calls a quick function to set the parent's child-window variable to null. Use the following code as the basis of all pages in your new window (you'll probably want to delete the comments):
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Your Page Title Goes Here</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
<!--
function clearvar()
{
if(document.images) //quickie IE3 sniffer...
//IE3 doesn't know what "self.opener" is,
//and gives errors when you try to assign "self" to a variable to simulate
//the opener property (as in "newwin.opener = self"). So we simply don't set the
//window status to closed in IE3 when this window is closed. We'll force the status to be
//closed every time we launch the window from the parent's script.
{
//In Nav3 and IE4+, we clear the existence of newwin when newwin is closed. We do this
//manually because the newwin object will continue to exist even after the physical window
//is gone. In theory we should check the .closed property of newwin to determine
//whether or not it's still open (eg. "if(newwin.closed)"), but IE4 returns a strange error
//when that property is referenced: "The RPC server is unavailable.". So, for IE4's benefit,
//we clear the newwin variable completely when the window is closed by the user.
//One problem with setting newwin to null manually is that Nav4 doesn't call onUnload when the
//user uses the window's close button (X) to close the window. So to accomodate Nav4 *and* IE4,
//we actually end up having to check both the existence of newwin and the status of newwin.closed.
//A general warning against using the onUnload handler on pre MacOS 8 Macs: If you use that
//handler in conjunction with closing the browser window in Netscape 3.x, you are likely to
//crash or kill the browser, and possibly even the Finder. For details of the bug, see:
//http://www.strangemedia.com/dmt/onUnload/
opener.newwin = null;
}
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY onUnload="clearvar()">
</BODY>
</HTML>
. Every other JavaScript capable browser does, including Netscape3. How odd......no, how annoying.