How to get an object of the window which is opened by clicking the link?

Question

Hi

I've got a link on the web page that causes new browser window (tab) to be opened when it's clicked, like this:

<a id="lnkNewWindow" target="_blank" href="http://google.com"&gt;Open window</a>

I want to be able to track the window that will be created after this link is clicked. I'd like to perform some actions after the new window is closed. Is there any way to do this (preferably using jQuery)?

Answer 1

You can grab the handle directly if you use the window.open() method. This is an old-school method, but still works like a charm. Take a look here: http://www.javascript-coder.com/window-popup/javascript-window-open.phtml

Answer 2

You can get it using by window.open() for the new window, like this:

$("#lnkNewWindow").click(function() {
  var win = window.open(this.href);
  //do stuff with win, e.g. win.onload
  return false; //prevent normal link behavior
});

You can also now remove the target attribute from the anchor, it's no longer needed...and you're XHTML valid to boot, if that mattered at all :)