30

I have a window I'm opening with a Javascript function:

function newwindow() 
{ 
window.open('link.html','','width=,height=,resizable=no'); 
}

I need it that once the new window opens that the focus returns to the original window. How can I do that? And where do I put the code - in the new window, or the old one? Thanks!

Jonathan Hall
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IsaacL
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  • WELL, I have a test where I want to click one button but have 12 different windows (Post data response from server) to open to view the layouts and compare them quickly/easily, so far I can only get the last getelementbyId to bind onClick event, I think its because the window loses focus and cannot locate the other IDs on the result window – Frankenmint Dec 03 '14 at 03:54
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    @DanMcGrath - there are definitely legitimate uses for this. In my case, we have search results for "deals" that link to outside vendor webpages. One of these vendors (called Abenity), gives us a unique login url for every user, and this user must be logged into Abenity before being able to view any of their deals. Now, we can't do a AJAX get on this Abenity login url, and we want to keep the user on our page... So, our best option is to open the login window as a "pop-under", keep the user on our page, then redirect the user to the deal on the Abenity page (where they are now logged in). – jball037 Mar 04 '15 at 21:17
  • Sometimes good UX has to trump good programming :P – jball037 Mar 04 '15 at 21:20
  • @DanMcGrath I'm getting data from a web service (http://services.tropicos.org/), and want two things: 1) part of the data appears in the current window; 2) a page of the service site opens in the background. So, that's a reason for using this technique... – Rodrigo Feb 15 '16 at 14:15
  • You want something which is not possible, at least not with these "modern" browsers. – cncDAni3 Apr 23 '23 at 01:37

6 Answers6

16

This is known as a 'pop-under' (and is generally frowned upon... but I digress).. It should give you plenty to google about

You probably want to do something like:

var popup = window.open(...);
popup.blur();
window.focus();

Which should set the focus back to the original window (untested - pinched from google). Some browsers might block this technique.

ChadT
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    I tried using the blur() thing, but it didn't work so well in Firefox, so I guess that should work better - I just wasn't sure how to refer back to the original window. I also saw something about window.opener.focus() = does anyone know how I would use that? – IsaacL Feb 02 '10 at 03:39
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    Popup blockers have progressed a bit. I'm not surprised that browsers will block this technique - it's almost always used for evil. – ChadT Apr 28 '14 at 06:44
  • Most of site telling about same trick to open new window in background, but none of them working. Des any other trick to do so from JavaScript/jQuery etc. – Sanjay Goswami Jan 15 '16 at 11:52
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    @DemvenWeir - it's likely now being blocked by browsers. – ChadT Feb 19 '20 at 22:05
6

After calling window.open, you may try to use

window.resizeTo(0,0); 
window.moveTo(0,window.screen.availHeight+10);

this way can not really open window in background, but works in similar way. Chrome works fine, did not try other browser.

Albert
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  • wow, genius. also,then you can use `window.close();` in that popup page too (if you own that page). – T.Todua Oct 30 '15 at 22:17
  • @tazo you can also use close() even if you don't own that page, you just need to save the window in a variable when you open it w = window.open(...); .... w.close(); – aljgom Sep 22 '16 at 00:27
6

If Albert's solution doesn't work for you and you actually want the window visible, but to be opened behind the current window, you can try opening a new tab in the opener window and closing it right away, this will bring the focus back to the opener window. 

window.open('link.html','','width=,height=,resizable=no');  
window.open().close();

However, I believe whether the second window opens in a tab or a new window depends on your browser settings.

Please don't use "pop-unders" for evil.

aljgom
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2

You can use either "blur" or "focus" to do that required action.

"blur"

function newwindow()  
{  
    var myChild= window.open('link.html','','width=,height=,resizable=no');  
    myChild.blur();
}

"focus"

function newwindow()  
{  
    window.open('link.html','','width=,height=,resizable=no');  
    window.focus();
}

Put the code in your parentWindow (i.e. the window in which you are now)

Both will work.

Toto
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Nazmul
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0

tl;dr - in 2022 - ctrl/cmd clicking on a button and window.open(url, "_blank") in a javascript button handler's for loop will open multiple tabs in the background in Chrome.

I'm looking for this as of 2022 and none of the answers here worked (here and everywhere else I looked). My use case is clicking a button in a (progressive) web app which opens deep links to items in a list in background tabs (i.e. not "for evil").

It never occurred to me that ctrl/cmd + clicking on the button would open tabs in the background, but it does just as if the user clicked on an anchor tag itself directly - but only in Chrome. Combined with Chrome's relatively recent tab grouping feature, this can be very useful inside PWAs.

const isMozilla =
  window?.navigator?.userAgent?.toString().toLowerCase().includes('firefox') ?? false;
for (let index = 0; index < urls.length; index++) {
  const url = isMozilla ? urls.reverse()[index] : urls[index];
  window.open(url, "_blank");
}

Note: I reverse() the array on Mozilla to get the order of newly created tabs as the user would expect them.

wraiford
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-1

You can just use '_self'. It will be stay to the same page an

window.open(url, '_self');
mrjordan237
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    This does not answer the original question. Your answer opens a new url in the same tab. The question was how to open a new tab in the background, so the original tab keeps focus. – Marc Selman Nov 18 '22 at 16:23