Windows (pop-up) minimize in JavaScript

Question

How can I minimize the pop-up windows I made on my website to keep it and call it again when I want?

Note : if there is an example to help it will be great.

Answer 1

Agreeing with @Closure Cowboy i wish to add that now days it becomes rare that a web site actually opens a pop-up window, usually it is done using a floating div element using CSS layers to display a look-a-like popup window which is actually part of the same HTML web page itself.

You can see some samples in the jquery ui dialog page. http://jqueryui.com/demos/dialog/

Using this method you have full control on the "window" and you can hide it / minimize it using javascript. Google use it in gmail tasks list.

Answer 2

You cannot minimize the browser window from within Javascript (...on any modern browser, though some ancient ones might allow it). I agree with this limitation: websites should have full control over what happens inside their browser window; they shouldn't have control over what happens to the window itself.

That being said, there are ways (sadly) of resizing the window using Javascript. Try this:

window.resizeTo(x, y);

You can also blur() the window, which theoretically causes the window to lose focus and moves it behind other windows.

• Ege Özcan: In firefox, a user may disable this too by going to options > content and click the advanced button for javascript. there are some checkboxes that let you disable resizing and other annoyances. so this only would make the resizeTo not reliable.
• ClosureCowboy: I'm glad Firefox lets users do this! I wasn't aware.