Question

I’ve got an sql datareader that has a bunch of paths in it.
I need to open up multiple pop up windows / multiple tabs on the browser.
So I tried looping through my datareader and doing a ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript
but after the code completes nothing opens up…

Here is my code:

While r.Read()
            ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(Me.GetType, "popup" + counter.ToString(), "window.open('" + CType(r("AttachmentLink"), String) + "','_blank' + new Date().getTime(),'menubar=no')", True)
            counter += 1
        End While

I put a watch in and my reader does contain the data I want, but no popup window opens :(.

edit

Here is some sample data that is in the AttachmentLink column of my database:

\\myserver\myfolder\1.pdf
\\myserver\myfolder\mydoc.doc
\\myserver\myfolder\myimage.jpg

The actual link is to a local file server stored on our network…

Answer 1

Try changing the javascript to the following syntax:

window.open(url, '_blank', 'menubar=no')

If that doesn’t work, try creting the script first, like so:

Dim sb as New StringBuilder()
Do While r.Read()
    sb.AppendLine("window.open('" & r("AttachmentLink") & "', '_blank', 'menubar=no');")
Loop
ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(Me.GetType(), "popup", sb.ToString(), True)

One thing I noticed too is that you missed a semi-colon in the javascript code, sometimes it can mess things pretty bad.

Edited to Add

Answering a comment, you could use something like this:

sb.AppendLine("window.open('" & LoadPageLink(r("AttachmentLink")) & "' ... )")

Function LoadPageLink(path As String) As String
    Return String.Format("loadFile.aspx?p={0}", Server.UrlEncode(path))
End Function

----- LoadFile.aspx

Sub Page_Load(sender as Object, e as EventArgs)
    '*
    '* OK The worst part here is to detect the content-type of the file
    '* because it is being served by a proxy page, instead of directing 
    '* the browser to the actual file, which would make the IIS gess the
    '* content type and send the correct one. 
    '* 
    '* Getting the correct content type is beyond the scope of this answer
    '*

    Dim buffer as Byte(1024)

    Using (stream as New FileStream(Request("p")))
        Do While True
           Dim read = stream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)
           If (read > 0) Then
               Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, read)
           Else
               Exit Do
           End If
        End Do
    End Using

End Sub