jQuery: go to URL with target="_blank"

Question

I am using this bit of jQuery code to get href of the link:

var url = $(this).attr('href');

-- and this bit of code to go to that href:

window.location = url;

Everything is just the way I want it, except the new page opens in the same window as the previous one, and I want it to open in a new window or tab (something that in plain html would have been achieved by using target="_blank" formula).

Question: How can I open the href in the new window or tab with jQuery?

Thank you for your help!

Solution 1

You need to open a new window:

window.open(url);

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/DOM/window.open

Solution 2

Use,

var url = $(this).attr('href');
window.open(url, '_blank');

Update:the href is better off being retrieved with prop since it will return the full url and it's slightly faster.

var url = $(this).prop('href');

Solution 3

Question: How can I open the href in the new window or tab with jQuery?

var url = $(this).attr('href').attr('target','_blank');

Solution 4

The .ready function is used to insert the attribute once the page has finished loading.

$(document).ready(function() {
     $("class name or id a.your class name").attr({"target" : "_blank"})
})

Solution 5

Detect if a target attribute was used and contains "_blank". For mobile devices that don't like "_blank", this is a reliable alternative.

    $('.someSelector').bind('touchend click', function() {

        var url = $('a', this).prop('href');
        var target = $('a', this).prop('target');

        if(url) {
            // # open in new window if "_blank" used
            if(target == '_blank') { 
                window.open(url, target);
            } else {
                window.location = url;
            }
        }           
    });

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Comments

[Dimitri Vorontzov]

Thank you. That's just what I needed. Another quick question: is there a way to tell the browser to open a new tab rather than a new window?

[Dimitri Vorontzov]

Thank you. No, not a pop-up. Just a normal window. Normally I would just let html do the job, but a prior bit of code I use in the same menu disables the default behavior for all the links.

[Christopher Armstrong]

I believe it depends upon how the browser is configured (i.e. a setting to open pop-ups in tabs or windows).

[Nathan Wailes]

Just a heads-up for future readers: I was using jQuery("a").prop("target", "_blank"); without enclosing it in $document.ready and it wasn't working in Chrome, but once I enclosed it in the $document.ready() call, it started working.