JavaScript Examples Bible - UserWorks Technologies

60 JavaScript Examples Bible: The Essential Companion to JavaScript Bible
elementObject.blur()
Listing 15-23 (continued)
newWindow = window.open(“”,””,”width=250,height=250”)
// pause briefly to let IE3 window finish opening
setTimeout(“fillWindow()”,100)
} else {
// window already exists, so bring it forward
newWindow.focus()
}
}
// assemble new content and write to subwindow
function fillWindow() {
var newContent = “Another Subwindow”
newContent += “”
newContent += “A Salmon-Colored Subwindow.”
newContent += “”
// the following button doesn’t work in NN6
newContent += “”
newContent += “”
// write HTML to new window document
newWindow.document.write(newContent)
newWindow.document.close()
}
Window focus() and blur() Methods
A key ingredient to the success of the makeNewWindow() function in Listing 15-23
is the first conditional expression. Because newWind is initialized as a null value
when the page loads, that is its value the first time through the function. But after
you open the subwindow the first time, newWind is assigned a value (the subwindow
object) that remains intact even if the user closes the window. Thus, the value
doesn’t revert to null by itself. To catch the possibility that the user has closed the
window, the conditional expression also sees if the window is closed. If it is, a new
subwindow is generated, and that new window’s reference value is reassigned to
the newWind variable. On the other hand, if the window reference exists and the
window is not closed, the focus() method brings that subwindow to the front. You
can see the focus() method for a text object in action in JavaScript Bible Chapter
25’s description of the select() method for text objects.