Question

I am using a bookmarklet which can (obviously) be called by the user anywhere:

javascript:(function(){window.open('http://*****.com/***.html?url=
'+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href),'my_page_name',
'left=200,top=200,width=480,height=500,personalbar=0,
toolbar=0,scrollbars=1,resizable=1')})()

How can I make this like a modal window, meaning no ugly browser window borders – should I use jquery or something like in the bookmarklet URL and if so, how?

Answer 1

You could use the approach Firebug Lite uses.
Basically you insert an external JS file into your page when you click on the bookmark.

<a href="javascript:(function(F,i,r,e,b,u,g,L,I,T,E){if(F.getElementById(b))return;E=F[i+'NS']&&F.documentElement.namespaceURI;E=E?F[i+'NS'](E,'script'):F[i]('script');E[r]('id',b);E[r]('src',I+g+T);E[r](b,u);(F[e]('head')[0]||F[e]('body')[0]).appendChild(E);E=new%20Image;E[r]('src',I+L);})(document,'createElement','setAttribute','getElementsByTagName','FirebugLite','4','PATH_TO_JS ','PATH_TO_ICON','BASE_URL','#startOpened');">My bookmark</a>

Just change BASE_URL, PATH_TO_JS and PATH_TO_ICON to what you need it to be.
Also, don’t forget the “http://” in the BASE_URL, unless you want to use a relative path.

Your external JS file could contain a script which adds an element to the page which hovers over others. I recommend using the CSS in Twitter Bootstrap to figure out how to make a reliable modal window.

Edit —

To help you out I wrote a small demo. It consists of 2 files:

• bookmark.html – adapted firebug code to create bookmark which adds script dynamically
• bookmark.js – creates a modal with an iframe

bookmark.html

<a href="javascript:(function(F,i,r,e,b,u,g,L,I,T,E){if(F.getElementById(b))return;E=F[i+'NS']&&F.documentElement.namespaceURI;E=E?F[i+'NS'](E,'script'):F[i]('script');E[r]('id',b);E[r]('src',I+g+T);E[r](b,u);(F[e]('head')[0]||F[e]('body')[0]).appendChild(E);E=new%20Image;})(document,'createElement','setAttribute','getElementsByTagName','FirebugLite','4','bookmark.js','','http://www.bijtel.com/stackoverflow/bookmark/','#startOpened');">Bookmark</a>

bookmark.js

(function() {
  var script;

  if(!window.jQuery) {

    script = document.createElement("script");
    script.type = "text/javascript";
    script.src = "https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.0/jquery.min.js";
    document.body.appendChild(script);

  }

  (function check_if_loaded() {

    if(!window.jQuery) {

      setTimeout(check_if_loaded, 50);

    } else {

      (function($) {

        var
          $dark_bg = $('<div></div>').css({'z-index': '1000', 'background-color': '#000000', 'opacity': '0', 'position': 'absolute', 'width': '100%', 'height': '100%'}),
          $iframe = $('<iframe></iframe>').css({'width': '100%', 'height': '100%', 'border': 1, 'overflow': 'hidden'}).prop({'src': 'http://bijtel.com/cv/', 'width': '100%', 'height': '100%', 'scrolling': 'no'}),
          $close = $('<div></div>').css({'position': 'absolute', 'top': 0, 'right': 0, 'padding': '5px 10px', 'cursor': 'pointer', 'color': '#ffffff', 'font-size': '10pt', 'font-family': 'verdana'}).html('close &times;');
          $modal = $('<div></div>').css({'z-index': '1010', 'background-color': '#ffffff', 'opacity': '0', 'position': 'absolute', 'top': '10%', 'left': '10%', 'width': '80%', 'height': '80%', 'box-shadow': '7px 7px 5px #333'}).append($close, $iframe);

        $('body').css({'padding': 0, 'margin': 0}).prepend($dark_bg, $modal);

        $dark_bg.animate({'opacity':0.5}, 400);

        $modal.animate({'opacity':1}, 400);

        $close.on('click', function() {
          $dark_bg.animate({'opacity': 0}, 400, function(){ $dark_bg.remove(); });
          $modal.animate({'opacity': 0}, 400, function(){ $modal.remove(); });
        });

      }(window.jQuery));

    }

  }());

}());

Demo at: http://bijtel.com/stackoverflow/bookmark/