Question

I am currently developing a web application where I need to open a popup window to show a report. The problem is that some versions of explorer don’t support the window.open javascript function, so when this is the case I catch the error and open the new url with location.href. Here the code:

try {
    window.open(url, "","width=1002,height=700,location=0,menubar=0,scrollbars=1,status=1,resizable=0")
} catch(e) {
    location.target = "_blank";
    location.href = url;
}

The problem is that the location.target is not working and I would like to know if there is a way to specify the target of the location.href so it can be opened in a new tab.

Answer 1

The problem is that some versions of explorer don’t support the window.open javascript function

Say what? Can you provide a reference for that statement? With respect, I think you must be mistaken. This works on IE6 and IE9, for instance.

Most modern browsers won’t let your code use window.open except in direct response to a user event, in order to keep spam pop-ups and such at bay; perhaps that’s what you’re thinking of. As long as you only use window.open when responding to a user event, you should be fine using window.open — with all versions of IE.

There is no way to use location to open a new window. Just window.open or, of course, the user clicking a link with target="_blank".