javascript: how to communicate between 2 windows?

Question

I understand how to open windows and communicate between the original window that opened the 2nd window and the 2nd window to communicate back to the original window. However, I have a situation where I have original page and page 1. These pages are 2 different PHP scripts that runs as a separate page.

page 1 opens a window with clients webpage inside. We will call this window 1.

Original page opens window 2 and window 3. These windows loads in php files that hold editing tools. I need these window 2 and window 3 to communicate with original page to edit window 1's content. I don't see how this is possible. I only seen tutorials and books talking about original page and the windows it creates are the only ones that can access each other. So, I know in theory I cannot have the original page communicate with window 1 because window 1 was created by page 1.

Is, there any way to work around this? The page 1 opens up content...like images, webpages...etc. I have it already setup this way. I need to be able to have my window tools to access the content window. That way they can edit webpages or images. How can I Do this if it's possible?

No, that isn't the same question. I need to modify the document to make changes to the html. So, using cookies won't solve my problem. I need to edit t he content in the other window that was open by a different webpage but it's still part of the same domain.

Answer 1

Updated 05/21

For reference: https://github.com/dboots/crossWindowAjax

Demo: http://www.donboots.com/so/index.php and http://www.donboots.com/so/index2.php

This is a fairly rudimentary polling solution between windows that use the /js/editor.js file found in the github repo/

/index.php, /index2.php - These simply open up our popup windows.

/colors.php, /tools.php - Our popup windows that contain the poll() function and also have examples of using the set() function. Both of these are custom functions that live within /js/editor.js

/js/editor.js - This is the bridge between our popup windows and the PHP file (/js/ajax/process.php).

/_classes/Editor.php - This is the class that /js/ajax/process.php uses to set/get our variables. In this example, it sets/gets $_SESSION variables, but this class could be expanded to use any sort of file storage, database, etc.

Original answer (not relevant)

I imagine this could be solved via tossing around window variable scopes.

Does this scenario match your needs?

Window 1

//-- window 1 variable
var page_variable = "page_variable";

//-- handle for window A
var windowA = window.open('windowA.php', 'windowA', 'height=200,width=600');

//-- handle for windowB
var windowB = window.open('windowB.php', 'windowB', 'height=400,width=500');

windowA.php

//-- local windowA variable
var windowA_variable = "windowA Variable";

//-- windowB variable accessed via opener (window 1)
var windowB_variable = opener.windowB.windowB_variable;

//-- window 1 variable
var page_variable = opener.page_variable;

windowB.php

//-- local windowB variable
var windowB_variable = "windowB Variable";

//-- windowA variable accessed via opener (window 1)
var windowA_variable = opener.windowA.windowA_variable;

//-- window 1 variable
var page_variable = opener.page_variable;