How to open a new window or tab via javascript in windows phone 7 browser

Question

Is it possible to open a new window or tab via javascript in Windows Phone 7 browser?

window.open does not appear to be supported nor does target='_blank'.

Am I missing something here? This basic feature works just fine on iphone and android. Any ideas on how I can get this working in Windows Phone 7?

In the browser settings, there's an option to 'Open links in a new tab'. I doubt that can be overriden by the app. — Osiris, Sep 04 '12 at 08:17

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

28

On Windows Phone 7 this is not possible programmatically. It's all in the users hand.

To cite a Microsoft employee:

"A user can open a link in a new Tab by tapping and holding the link to get the context menu but an anchor or scripts request to target a new window is ignored.

There are several reasons for this:

Cross-window communications are not supported.

Windows Phone only has one instance of the browser so new "windows" have to be opened as Tab's.

The browser experience is full screen so the user has no good visual cue that they have moved to a new Tab unless they explicity request it.

Navigating "back" in a new Tab exits the browser which would be confusing to the user if they did not know a new Tab was created."

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

1
1

answered Sep 04 '12 at 14:37

acme

14,654
7
75
109

That's what I was afraid of. Thanks for confirming! – bmurmistro Sep 11 '12 at 12:50
great answer. Is there any information wether this is the same case for Windows Phone 8? – 最白目 Jun 10 '13 at 10:01
Is there a workaround to verify if a new window can be opened so a fallback method can be used if not? – Arnoud Sietsema Sep 04 '14 at 08:03

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 05 '12 at 04:15

If you are trying to add this feature for in-ap browser control, I can suggest you one way.

You have to inject a java-script on every webpage the browser control is able to load the page successfully. In the java-script use window.extern.notify to invoke the ScriptNotify function in your code behind. On the detection of the appropriate message create a new instance of browser control and add it to an array or list. Thereby you can emulate the new tab feature for in-app browser control.

the JS code to be injected may be like this String NEW_TAB_FUNCTION = "window.open = function(__msg){window.external.notify('addnewtab');};";

Which can be injected using browser.InvokeScript("eval", NEW_TAB_FUNCTION);

In ScriptNotify check for addnewtab (keep IsScriptEnabled = True)

    void WebBrowser_ScriptNotify(object sender, NotifyEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.Value == "addnewtab")
        {   
            //do work here
        }
    }

Note that I have overridden the window.open function in the JS with a function which will be injected every time on a new webpage in order to get notified of user input.

Also note this works only for WebBrowser Control and not external browser.

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately, I'm just dealing with the "external" browser. — bmurmistro, Sep 07 '12 at 13:14

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 21 '15 at 19:57

0

My workaround this issue is simple:

window.open

returns null if failed, so in that case I open it in the same window:

var win = window.open(href, '_blank');
    if(!win || win==null){
        window.location.href = href;
    }else{
        win.focus();     
    }

which is a good practice to have a fallback anyway...

answered Jan 21 '15 at 19:57

Tomer Almog

3,604
3
30
36

Hey Tomer, This doesn't work in windows phone 10 Edge browser. Any idea? – Ashutosh Jha Dec 02 '17 at 09:21
@AshutoshJha I think it got to do with the window size. Look here: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/platform/issues/11026637/ and here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_internet-insider_spartan-insiderplat_pc/windows-edge-does-not-open-the-new-window-directly/272c607a-253f-47a4-8ec7-4236d30940a1 – Tomer Almog Dec 05 '17 at 05:01

How to open a new window or tab via javascript in windows phone 7 browser

3 Answers3

Linked