window.open not opening window

Question

I'm trying to open a page in a popup as opposed to new tab - but whichever browser I try this simply opens in a new tab, not popup.

<input type="button" value="new win" onclick="window.open('http://yahoo.com', 'width=500, height=400')" />

Any reason why?

• Matteo Tassinari: I think that what you're facing is due to the fact that modern browsers are configured to open popups in new tabs...

Answer 1

Second parameter must be the window name:

<input type="button" value="new win" 
 onclick="window.open('http://yahoo.com', 'mywindow', 'width=500, height=400')" />

Working fine in Chrome and Firefox:

http://jsfiddle.net/DvMy5/2/

• StudioTime: Aaaaargh!! Schoolboy error! Thanks so much - will accept as soon as it lets me

Answer 2

The second parameter should be name..Something like windowname

<input type="button" value="new win" 
onclick="window.open('http://yahoo.com','windowname', 'width=500, height=400')" />

Answer 3

JSFiddle

onclick="window.open('http://yahoo.com', 'MyYahoo', 'width=500, height=400, toolbar=no, menubar=no')" />

window.open method is as follow.

window.open(URL,name,specs,replace)

Here is a good read Window open() Method

name Optional. Specifies the target attribute or the name of the window. The following values are supported:

_blank - URL is loaded into a new window. This is default
_parent - URL is loaded into the parent frame
_self - URL replaces the current page
_top - URL replaces any framesets that may be loaded
name - The name of the window

Answer 4

The problem is the 3rd argument to window.open. When you pass the 3rd argument, the browser will open a new window provided the window name(second argument is not already opened). window.open("http://localhost:5000", "newWindow", "resizable")will open window but window.open("http://localhost:5000", "newWindow") will open a tab.

• Tad Wohlrapp: That's true. The syntax is: window.open(URL, name, specs, replace). To answer the question, the second argument (name) was missing, so adding a blank name solves that: window.open('yahoo.com', '','width=500, height=400')

Answer 5

Isn't this something controlled by the various browsers? Using target="_blank" opens in a new tab in Chrome, and my guess is that this also apply for Firefox, Opera, Safari and IE.

• 11684: That guess is indeed right. But I think that only applies to <a /> elements.