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I'm having a little difficulty opening up windows after a period of time, and then closing them after a period of time, automatically. I'm not sure why, but it seems like when I try to use setTimeout on a window.open and window.close they interfere somehow. Here is my code atm:

function topLeft() {

var myWindow = "image.png", "ONE", "width=300,height=310,top=100,left=100,menubar=no,toolbar=no,titlebar=no,statusbar=no";

setTimeout(function() {
myWindow.window.open() }, 5000);

setTimeout(function() { 
myWindow.close() }, 10000);


function start() {
openClose();
}


window.onload = start;

Thanks for looking

biscuit_
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1 Answers1

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Your code is just not right.

myWindow is a string variable.

You're trying to call myWindow.window.open(). This would generate a script error because myWindow (a string variable) does not have a window property.

Perhaps what you mean to do is this:

var myWindowURL = "image.png", myWindowName = "ONE";
var myWindowProperties  = "width=300,height=310,top=100,left=100,menubar=no,toolbar=no,titlebar=no,statusbar=no";
var openWindow;

setTimeout(function() {
    openWindow = window.open(myWindowURL, myWindowName, myWindowProperties); 
}, 5000);

setTimeout(function() { 
    openWindow.close() 
}, 10000);

Popup blockers in most popular browsers will only allow a new window to be opened if it is opened as a result of code running from a direct user action such as a click.

Because a setTimeout() happens some time in the future, is not considered the direct result of a user action so attempts to open windows from setTimeout() are likely blocked by the popup blocker.

You can, of course, disable the popup blocker in your own browser, but that is only something you can do in your own browser. You can't disable popup blocking via Javascript (as that would defeat the purpose).

jfriend00
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  • Apologies I should have mentioned, I am asking users to turn off their pop up blocker (I know this is frowned upon, but this is an experiment). I have disabled my blocker, and the code is still not running? – biscuit_ May 09 '15 at 20:33
  • @NickR93 - see what I added to the start of my answer. Your code is simply wrong. – jfriend00 May 09 '15 at 20:40
  • Its interesting to see that on chrome, a timeout of 1000 does open the window (without popup blocked), but 2500 does not... so there is a timming thing to it. – Miguel Jun 13 '18 at 14:31
  • @Miguel most browsers only allow you to capture clicks and other events for up to one second. Edge doesn't allow you to use setTimeout to open a window (without putting up a popup blocked alert) at all. – Jess Sep 06 '18 at 15:05