How do you close a modal window from it's parent?

Answer 1

As soon as you open a modal window, the opener freezes and you can't apply any control via it!

for more clarification take a look on this code:

setTimeout('alert(1);', 1000);
setTimeout('alert(2);', 2000);
setTimeout('window.showModalDialog(...);', 3000);
setTimeout('alert(3);', 4000);

alert(1) will be executed on the first second.

alert(2) will be executed on the next second even if you don't confirm the alert(1).

on the 3rd second the modal window will be opened and at this point the opener window freezes, so alert(3) will not be executed on the 4th second.

alert(3) wont be executed when the modal window is still open, but one second after closing the modal window, alert(3) will be executed.

Conclusion: Parent has no control on the modal window after opening, because it's actually dead :-(