GWT open page in a new tab

Question

I am developing GWT application and I use

com.google.gwt.user.client.Window.open(pageUrl, "_blank", "");

to open new page. And it opens in a new tab when called, for example, directly after button click. But I decided to do some validations on server before opening new page and placed the call to the mentioned above method to the

public void onSuccess(Object response) {
}

And it starts to open pages in new window instead of new tab (this is true only for Chrome, other browsers still open it in a new tab).

Can anybody help me?

---

I built a small example to illustrate the issue:

    button.addClickHandler(new ClickHandler() {
        public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
            Window.open("http://www.google.com/", "_blank", "");
            MySampleApplicationServiceAsync serviceAsync = GWT.create(MySampleApplicationService.class);
            serviceAsync.getMessage("Hello, Server!", new AsyncCallback() {

                public void onFailure(Throwable caught) {
                    Window.alert("ERROR");
                }

                public void onSuccess(Object result) {
                    Window.open("http://www.bing.com/", "_blank", "");
                }
            }
            );
        }
    });

• Firefox(3.6.8) opens both pages in new tabs.
• Chrome(6.0) opens "google.com" in new tab and "bing.com" in new window
• Opera(10.10) opens in new tabs.
• IE(8.0) opens both in new Windows.

---

I marked igorbel 's answer as the only correct cos I haven't found any proper way to specify the same behaviour in all situations.

---

Solution 1

I am not sure you are going to be able to control this the way you want. The problem is that browsers can decide when to open windows and when to open tabs. For example, firefox has the option: "Open new windows in new tabs instead". And don't forget the browsers that don't support tabs (yes, those do still exist).

Since this is such a problematic aspect of the user experience, my recommendation would be to reconsider your design. Is it really that important for you application to differentiate between opening a new tab and opening a new window?

Solution 2

I used this code and it works for me in google chrome and mozilla firefox 3.6.8 browsers If you want to open a page in new window you should write code as

Window.open("www.google.com","_blank","enabled");

If you want to open a page in new tab you should write code as

Window.open("www.google.com","_blank","");

Solution 3

This code works for me:

1. Before calling the Async method keep a reference to a new window with empty parameters.
2. At onSuccess() method set the URL of the window.

---

Button someButton = new Button("test");
SelectionListener<ButtonEvent> listener = new SelectionListener<ButtonEvent>() 
{
    public void componentSelected(ButtonEvent ce)
    {
        final JavaScriptObject window = newWindow("", "", "");

        someService.doSomething(new AsyncCallback() 
        {
           public void onSuccess(Object o) 
           {
                setWindowTarget(window, "http://www.google.com/");
           }
        });            
    }
}
someButton.addSelectionListener(listener);


private static native JavaScriptObject newWindow(String url, String name, String features)/*-{
    var window = $wnd.open(url, name, features);
    return window;
}-*/;

private static native void setWindowTarget(JavaScriptObject window, String target)/*-{
    window.location = target;
}-*/;

Found at: http://groups.google.com/group/google-web-toolkit/browse_thread/thread/574b3b828271ba17

Solution 4

Interesting thing, chrome will open page in new tab in case if you put window.open(...) instruction into the body of the click handler implementation.

For example:

Button someButton = new Button("test",
                    new ClickHandler() {

                        public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
                            Window.open(...);
                        }

                    });

And a page will be opened in the separate window in case if I will include any Async. request into the mentioned code:

Button someButton = new Button("test",
                    new ClickHandler() {

                        public void onClick(ClickEvent event) {
                            someService.doSomething(new AsyncCallback() {
                                void onSuccess(Object o) {
                                    Window.open(...);
                                }
                                ...
                            });

                        }

                    });

Solution 5

The way Chrome looks at it, calling Window.open() is like trying to open a pop-up window in the user's face. That's frowned upon and will trigger the built-in pop-up blocker. Following a link, according to Chrome, should be the result of a user clicking on a good old anchor tag with an href attribute. But here lies the answer you're looking for: you can show a link to the user and change the link target on the fly. That would qualify as a 'proper' link in Chrome's world.

View more solutions

Comments

[RAS]

Can you provide more information on the third parameter? What does it mean & how is it used?