Question

With the function window.open() one can spawn auxiliary windows and tabs.

How can I get a list of the spawned auxiliary windows and tabs of the “parent” page in JavaScript?

EDIT: I’m looking for a way to do this without keeping track of the windows I create as they are created.

Answer 1

There is no way to do this in javascript. You need to keep track of them yourself:

var windowArray = [];

// whenever you open a window...
var newWindow = window.open(...);
windowArray.push(newWindow);

// whenever you close a window...
if (opener && !opener.closed && opener.windowArray) {
    // search for your window in the array

    var matchingIndex = -1;

    for (var i = 0; i < opener.windowArray.length; i++) {
        if (opener.windowArray[i] === window) {
            matchingIndex = i;
            break;
        }
    }

    // if your window was found, remove it
    if (matchingIndex !== -1) {
       opener.windowArray.splice(matchingIndex, 1);
    }
}