Question

for a normal link <a href="xxx" target="_blank">, the link will open at a new window(or tab).

I like to know if there’s a way to open it in background, and keep current window still active.

Answer 1

After you open the new window (we’ll call it newWindow), do this:

newWindow.blur();
window.focus();

This is usually called a “pop-under.” Opening the window won’t usually work unless it’s initiated by a user action like a mouse click, due to pop-up blockers built into most web browsers.

Just remember to get a handle to your new window when you open it.

var newWindow = window.open(...);

Also, if your pop-under is loading content from another domain, you’ll need to do the blur/focus thing before you send the window to its destination, otherwise you’ll run into the same-origin problem.

---

HTML:

<a href="xxx" target="_blank" onclick="return popUnder(this);">

JS:

function popUnder(node) {
    var newWindow = window.open("about:blank", node.target, "width=500,height=500");
    newWindow.blur();
    window.focus();
    newWindow.location.href = node.href;
    return false;
}