window.open(Name) parameter

[eTianbun]

w3schools is realy missing the point about JS window.open(Name)' parameter. It should be a target name of the newly created window and not where the URI parameter should be opened.

[niche]

Please post the example you'd like to see included at http://www.w3schools.com/jsref/met_win_open.asp

[ShadowMage]

Actually, as far as I can tell, providing a name for the window does absolutely nothing. You cannot access it by that name through any means that I know of.It does work, however, and is more useful to be able to specify where the window will open with _blank or _self.

[justsomeguy]

The main purpose of the name is that you can open several things in the same window. You can have an external window with a certain name, and every time you specify that name in window.open it will open the URL in the same window, or create it again if it was closed.

[eTianbun]

Actually, as far as I can tell, providing a name for the window does absolutely nothing. You cannot access it by that name through any means that I know of.

You cant access it through any means? Have you tried targeting that same window with its name, via links (<a>)?

[eTianbun]

The purpose of the name is that you can open several things in the same window. You can have an external window with a certain name, and every time you specify that name in window.open it will open the URL in the same window, or create it again if it was closed.

Thats true, if the window already exist, it opens the URI via that window (instead of creating a new one) and thats why the name parameter, serves as target name for that window. Edited June 15, 2012 by CodeName

[ShadowMage]

The main purpose of the name is that you can open several things in the same window. You can have an external window with a certain name, and every time you specify that name in window.open it will open the URL in the same window, or create it again if it was closed.

That makes sense. Essentially, window.open() mimics the behavior of clicking a link. Perhaps a more appropriate label for that attribute would be target instead of name. And an explanation that it is actually the target for the window, but that one can use custom named windows as a target.

You cant access it through any means? Have you tried targeting that same window with its name, via links (<a>)?

You mean something like this:

<a target='TestWindow' href='http://www.w3schools.com'>W3Schools</a>

That seems to work. At least in FF. Then again, the target attribute is deprecated...

[eTianbun]

It works in opera (10), firefox, IE(8), etc. Yes, target is deprecated, what about the ^NEW! CSS 3 target property? It should be 'name' and not 'target', but since it can also be used to target, thats still ok tho.

Edited June 15, 2012 by CodeName