JavaScript / jQuery - Open current link in pop-up window

Question

<a href="http://google.com">Link</a>

How can I open this link in a pop-up window? And prevent the browser to block it

Solution 1

There's "new windows" and there's "popups". Using target=_blank will open in a new window, except that modern browsers put new windows in new tabs by default. Which sounds like it isn't what you want.

For an actual popup you want window.open(), and be sure to include some specific width and height, otherwise some browsers will still put the new window in a new tab. Darin's example looks good to me.

As for popup blocking, the general approach that browsers take is that popups initiated by user action are allowed (such as clicking), while popups initiated spontaneously through script, such as this, are blocked:

<script type="text/javascript">
    window.open("http://www.google.com/", "Google", "width=500,height=500");
</script>

However, ad blocking being an escalating war, you can never be sure that a popup will open. If your popup is blocked, the window.open call returns null. So I would modify Daren's example like this:

<a href="http://www.google.com/"
    onclick="return !window.open(this.href, 'Google', 'width=500,height=500')"
    target="_blank">

If the popup is blocked, onclick returns true, which follows the link they clicked by opening it in a new window or tab. It's a fallback, so at least the content is accessible (if not pretty).

Solution 2

<a href="http://google.com" onclick="window.open(this.href, 'windowName', 'width=1000, height=700, left=24, top=24, scrollbars, resizable'); return false;">Link</a>

Solution 3

This will open a new window.

<a href="http://google.com" target="_blank">Link</a>

Comments

[Andrew]

If you are using XHTML Strict, the target attribute doesn't validate and you should attach an event (such as 'onclick') instead. If you are using an older doctype, you're fine with target="_blank".

[Simon]

One interesting bug i have noticed according window.open. if the url starts with http://..., it doesn't work in ie ...

[Nick Craver]

@Andrew - IMO that was an absolutely ridiculous decision on the W3C's part (deprecating target)...one that has been reversed in HTML5, in case anyone finds this later wondering.

[jpsimons]

I should also add, it's a good idea to have your popup content not be totally broken if it opens in a full-sized browser window, because of this fallback, and because the user could always right-click the link and "open in new tab or window" which circumvents the onClick handler altogether.

[Andrew]

I've not been following the HTML5 specs recently, but the latest revisions on W3C says target is still "unnecessary. Omit it altogether." I'm not defending this, but the idea is that HTML is supposed to be used for layout (defining the relationships between page data), CSS is for presentation and JS is for behaviour. And under this system, clicking on a link to open a window is a behaviour. That said, HTML5's CSS extensions are full of this kind of violation, so I don't see what the problem is.