Question

I am using window.open to open a new window. And doing the following in IE:

<a href="/someurl" onclick="window.open(href, 'myname', '...');  

But the window opens a new window under IE8, shouldn’t window open keep the existing window if I click on my link again because I am using the named window? When a user clicks on a link under this scenario, a new window appears. For Chrome and some browser configurations under IE, the window open works properly.

Is there some security setting or some scenario why window.open would act this way?

Also, within the window, there is a redirect to a third-party site at a different host.

Answer 1

Had similar issue with external named windows under IE. Also had an issue with window focus. This custom (and pretty tricky) function works fine for me with IE, FF and Chrome:

function openWindowWithFocus(url, name, features) {

        if (!name || name == '') {
            name = 'DefaultWindow'
        }

        if (!window[name] || window[name].closed == null || window[name].closed) {
            window[name] = window.open(url, name, features);
        } else {
            window[name].location.replace(url);
        }

        window[name].focus();

    }