Get reference to a tab opened by click event on

Question

Can we get a reference to a tab which was opened by setting target attribute of anchor element to _blank.

I basically create a new hidden link and append it to a DOM and then I programmatically simulate click event on that element, is there a way to get a reference to a newly opened tab like we can with window.open by doing:

var newTab = window.open('http://www.google.com/');

EDIT: Before marking question as duplicate note that I'm unable to use window.open at all, hence this question.

Once the window is open, are you looking to immediately do something? Or are you just opening a window with links in it that are not reacting to the script since it was opened after page load? — weekapaug, Sep 10 '18 at 14:22
pls explain "I'm unable to use `window.open` at all"?. Also, can you update question with your code snippet? — nkshio, Sep 12 '18 at 08:47
@prsvr - What are you intending to do with the reference to the new tab? That'll guide an answer to your question :) — Andrews Gyamfi, Sep 13 '18 at 03:37
@AndrewsGyamfi I simply need to check if the reference is null, so I can determine whether user's browser has pop up blocker on or off. — whatamidoingwithmylife, Sep 13 '18 at 08:28
Will you have control of the page that is opened in the newly opened tab? i.e. Is it a page you have written or is it an external link? — Ben Smith, Sep 13 '18 at 23:05
This is probably a repeat of the question [How can I detect if a browser is blocking a popup?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2914/how-can-i-detect-if-a-browser-is-blocking-a-popup) — miozzz, Sep 14 '18 at 11:08

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '18 at 10:40

1

If you can't use code directly inside the anchor, you could try to get the reference afterwards (doesn't work in IE). However you need to set a different target than _blank, it will still open a new tab though.

1) Define a target name for your anchor

<a href="https://google.com" target="myTarget">Click me</a>

2) Get the reference with this "hack":

var ref = window.open('', 'myTarget');

For more information, see https://medium.com/@bluepnume/every-known-way-to-get-references-to-windows-in-javascript-223778bede2d

answered Sep 14 '18 at 10:40

Stefan Blamberg

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That's what I was looking for, even though I did mention we I can't use window.open() so basically it's a loop, but nevertheless this does answer my original question on how to get a reference to a tab opened by element. – whatamidoingwithmylife Sep 14 '18 at 13:30

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 14 '18 at 05:05

There are a few red flags worth considering for the functionality you seek to build before you proceed:

You do not have much control (as a developer) to force new links to be opened in browser tabs. That's based on the user's preference as per this answer
window.open docs indicates it returns a null value "If the window couldn't be opened". You can use this to loosely check whether a new window was opened or not. However, this might not be consistent across the different browsers.

I will suggest you look at other options (if any) before going down this path.

All the best :)

#1 is not a problem, #2 actually is, as you can read in my question, I'm not allowed to use it. — whatamidoingwithmylife, Sep 14 '18 at 13:16

Get reference to a tab opened by click event on

2 Answers2