Load page in javascript without opening it

Question

I'd like to load the contents of a page in javascript without actually opening it. I want to use it so I can load a page and scan some of its elements to see if it should actually be opened in a new window/tab before doing the opening itself.

How can I do that?

Does it follow the [same origin policy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same_origin_policy)? — zzzzBov, Dec 14 '11 at 18:33
Well, I'm very much a beginner in web development, and I have a very simple idea for a cool little site. I'm open to using something completely different than javascript if it isn't all too complicated. I'd rather have it running in a couple of minutes than learning about things I will never need again (I usually never develop web stuff and I probably never will again). edit: @zzzzBov, I basically just need to check the site that I want to open for content that's like "404 - not found", so I'm not sure if it follows the policy. The sites are always external — TravisG, Dec 14 '11 at 18:35
@heishe: If you want to know if the page is not found, all you need to do is a `HEAD` request. However, you can still only do this server-side if the pages are not on the same domain as the main webpage. — mellamokb, Dec 14 '11 at 18:39
A little update: Thanks for the replies so far, but I'm guessing it can be done a little bit easier. All I need to do is basically: var wnd = window.open(url), then somehow keep the window from opening until i want to open it manually, and until that time search through certain elements via window.document.getElementByID() — TravisG, Dec 14 '11 at 19:08

TreyE · Answer 1 · 2011-12-14T18:40:00.920

2

You can do this using the XMLHttpRequest object.

This is subject, however, to cross-domain scripting limitations.

Read more about it:

edited Dec 14 '11 at 18:40

answered Dec 14 '11 at 18:34

TreyE

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w3schools is evil, link to mdn or a better source instead. – hugomg Dec 14 '11 at 18:35
1

@TreyE, [`MDN`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/) `!=` [`MSDN`](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ms348103). – zzzzBov Dec 14 '11 at 18:53

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 14 '11 at 18:39

0

Load it in an Ajax call.

With jQuery:

$.ajax({
  url: 'http://your_page_url',
  success: function( data ) {
    // process data (which is actually your page contents)
  }
});

answered Dec 14 '11 at 18:39

Oleg Mikheev

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When I try this, the debugger says: XMLHttpRequest cannot load URLHERE. Origin null is not allowed by Access-Control-Allow-Origin. How do I fix this? – TravisG Dec 14 '11 at 21:06
what is your URL? this error is discussed [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4208530/xmlhttprequest-origin-null-is-not-allowed-access-control-access-allow-for-file) and [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5224017/origin-null-is-not-allowed-by-access-control-allow-origin-in-chrome-why) – Oleg Mikheev Dec 15 '11 at 05:44
Worth noting that this requires jQuery. – TreyE Jan 10 '12 at 12:50
That's why _With jQuery_ is in the answer :) – Oleg Mikheev Jan 12 '12 at 11:14

Load page in javascript without opening it

2 Answers2