Javascript popups

README.md

The "target" attribute in links is now only used for pages using framesets (reference), so how do you pop up a new browser window for links you want to have people navigate to without leaving your page?

Using the current W3 standard for anchor tags anchor tags can be given a rel attribute that describes what relation the linked-to page has to this current page. It also provides a standard list of available relationships. Many other groups added to this list and there are many widely-used values for the rel tag, including "external".

With this method, give links to be made popups a rel attribute of "external", and include the following file in the head of the document.

generic_popup.js

// Function to parse all anchor tags, and automatically make those that have a class of 'newWin' open in a new window
var parsePopups = function() {
  var x = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
  for (var i=0; i<x.length; i++) {
    if (x[i].rel.indexOf('external') > -1) {
      // This anchor is an external one
      x[i].onclick = function() {
        newWin = window.open(this.href, 'mysite_pop'); // Pop a new window
        if (window.focus) { newWin.focus() } // Focus on it if possible
        return false; // Keep from following standard href of link
      }
    }
  }
}
window.onload = parsePopups; // Standard initialize

jQuery_popup.js

$(document).ready(function() {
  $("a[rel*='external']").click(function(event) {
    event.preventDefault(); // Keep from following standard href of link
    new_win = window.open($(this).attr('href'), 'offsite_popup') // Pop up a window to that URL
    if (window.focus) { new_win.focus() } // Give it focus if possible
  });
});