Problems with IE and appending to the window.opener

Question

I have the following script that works well in Firefox and Chrome (not sure about other browsers), but it doesn't work at all in IE. It basically opens a popup which appends a div to highlight an item in the window opener. I want it to work across multiple pages on the same site, so I didn't want to add a function to create the div in the main window (window.opener). Sorry I couldn't post a working demo - window.opener doesn't work in a bin.

<button>Open popup</button>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function(){
 $(':button').click(function(){
  var highlight = "" +
   "<button>Click to Add Highlight</button>" +
   "<scr"+"ipt type='text/javascript' src='http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.4.1/jquery.min.js'&gt;&lt;/scr"+"ipt&gt;" +
   " <scr"+"ipt type='text/javascript'>" +
   " $(':button').click(function(){" +
   "  $('<div/>', {" +
   "   'class': 'highlight'," +
   "   css: {" +
   "    position:   'absolute'," +
   "    height:     '50px'," +
   "    width:      '50px'," +
   "    left:       '200px'," +
   "    top:        '200px'," +
   "    background: '#fff'," +
   "    opacity:    0.5," +
   "    zIndex:     99" +
   "   }" +
   "  }).appendTo( $(window.opener.document.body) );" +
   " })" +
   " </scr"+"ipt>";
  var w = window.open('','highlighter','toolbar=0,location=0,status=0,width=200,height=100,scrollbars=1,resizable=1');
  w.document.write(highlight);
  w.document.close();
 })
})
</script>

I have also tried to use appendChild without success. I ultimately found this method to work, but it is a horrible solution and causes the page to blink.

if ($.browser.msie){
 var d = '<div class="highlight" style="position:absolute;height:50px;' +
  'width:50px;left:200px;top:200px;background:#fff;opacity:0.5;' +
  'filter:alpha(opacity=50);zIndex:99;"></div>';
 window.opener.document.body.innerHTML = window.opener.document.body.innerHTML + d;
}

Anyone know of a better solution?

Answer 1

You did not open it up

var w = window.open(...);
w.document.open(); //Open the document up
w.document.write(highlight);
w.document.close();

Eric

Answer 2

I think I found the problem. It might be a jQuery bug, but I can't tell... I'll post another question to get help.

So I found the solution to this problem by just appending a string. For some reason jQuery in IE won't append an object. So this works:

if ($.browser.msie){
 var d = '<div class="highlight" style="position:absolute;height:50px;width:50px;left:200px;' + 
  'top:200px;background:#fff;opacity:0.5;filter:alpha(opacity=50);zIndex:99;"></div>';
 $(window.opener.document.body).append(d);
}

---

Edit: Pointy solved my problem in another question. It turns out it's not a bug, but IE not allowing you to append an object created outside of the window. His solutions is as follows:

window.opener.$('<div/>', {
 'class': 'highlight',
 css: {
  position:   'absolute',
  height:     '50px',
  width:      '50px',
  left:       '200px',
  top:        '200px',
  background: '#fff',
  opacity:    0.5,
  zIndex:     99
 }
}

But make sure the window.opener is using jQuery v1.4 or greater.