Develop Reference

Restore native Window method

For a script I'm writing, I'd like to use the native window.open method. However, a script already loaded to which I don't have access, overwrites the global window.open method with a boolean (ouch).
I know how to restore the methods on the Document (via HTMLDocument.prototype), but I don't know how to restore them on the Window, as I can't seem to find the equivalent for that to Window. Window.prototype.open does not exist for example.
I have tried creating an iframe, and getting the open method from that contentWindow in the iframe, but the browser will block opening windows using open because it was probably created in another origin. Neither delete open; does work because open was defined using var in the globally loaded script.
So, how can I restore the open method, defined as 'native code' in Chrome?
I know there are similar questions around, but actually the main question is:
Is there a equivalent of HTMLDocument for the Window object?

I've found this question and the accepted answer (using an iframe) could be used in your case.
The only issue is you can only use the retrieved version of window.open as long as the iframe is still in your document.
function customOpen() {
// local variables definitions :
var url = "https://stackoverflow.com", iframe, _window;
// creating an iframe and getting its version of window.open :
iframe = document.createElement("iframe");
document.documentElement.appendChild(iframe);
_window = iframe.contentWindow;
// storing it in our window object
window.nativeOpen = _window.open;
try {
window.open(url);
} catch (e) {
console.warn(e); // checking that window.open is still broken
}
window.nativeOpen(url);
// deleting the iframe :
document.documentElement.removeChild(iframe);
}
document.getElementById("button").addEventListener("click", customOpen);
Another JSFiddle
Keeping the workaround answer in case someone needs it :
Can you execute a custom script prior to the execution of the script that redefines window.open? If so, you could create a copy of the window.open in another global variable.
It could look like this :
1. First : a backup script
window.nativeOpen = window.open;
2. Then, whatever the window.open overwriting script does :
window.open = false; // who does that, seriously?
3. Your window opening script, that'll use your window.open copy :
function customOpen() {
var url = "https://stackoverflow.com";
try {
window.open(url);
} catch (e) {
console.warn(e);
}
window.nativeOpen(url);
}
JSFiddle example

How do I navigate to bing.com and enter a search text using the chrome console?

Below is my code.
It is resulting in unexpected behaviour.
It navigates to bing.com but it does not fill in the text field. Also, I have noticed that the console get cleared after navigating to a new webpage.
window.location = "https://www.bing.com";
window.onload = function(){
var editSearch = document.getElementById("sb_form_q");
editSearch.value = "Quux";
}

You are binding the onload function to the existing window object.
When the browser loads the new page, it will make a new window object which won't have your property set on it.
JavaScript run in one page (even when you are running it through developer tools) can't persist variables onto a different page.
(Storage mechanisms like localStorage and cookies are available, but you would need code in the subsequent page to look for them).

JavaScript is only valid for the current page you are on. When you are executing code from DevTools console, you are executing code on that page itself. So, when you navigate to another page using window.location you loose the onload handler you have defined.
To add handlers to a different page, it must be connected to your page (the parent) in some way, like an iframe or a popup.
ifrm = document.getElementById('frame');
ifrm.src = 'http://example.com';
ifrm.contentWindow.onload = function () {
// do something here with
// ifrm.contentWindow.document.getElementById('form')
}

As #Quentin said.
But you can do another way like ..
var keyword = "Quux";
window.location = "https://www.bing.com/search?q="+keyword;

Javascript: How to make sure window.open returns same window, if already opened

I am working on a web based application, in which I have to open popup window. I am using window.open() method to open the popup, like this:
window.open(url, "popupWin");
where url contains the URL I would like my popup window to navigate to. Now, the problem is, if I execute window.open() from multiple tabs (with same or different URLs), at least on Chrome, it might / might not give you the same window which was opened earlier. This behaviour is inconsistent, I mean, either it should get me fresh window every time, or it should get me previously opened window every time.
I need to persist the same popup window for entire domain. How can I do that?

Well looks like there is a direction to go or at least to give it a try.
It fully remains on localStorage which gives you ability to share the knowledge across your tabs within a single domain.
The code I give below does not work yet (it is only a direction), so don't expect too much from running it as it is.
What it does: it saves the popups by the url in a localStorage and when you try to open a new one with the same url it won't do that. If you don't want to distinguish them by URL it is even simpler: store boolean in a localStorage instead of an object.
What it does not do but should:
it should listen to the popup onunload (close) event and reset the localStorage information accordingly. Best for you here is just to set your localStorage boolean value to false
it should listen to the current tab onunload (reload, close) event and also reset something according to Your logic. As I understand the best for you would be just check whether this tab is the last one from your domain (you can also do this using localStorage, e.g. on every new tab adding its identifier, e.g. creation timestamp and destroying it on tab close) and if it is set your localStorage boolean value to false.
This, I think, would be enough to solve the problem. And finally a small piece of code:
// get the localstorage url map
function getOpenPopups() {
var obj = localStorage.getItem('mypopups');
return obj ? JSON.parse(obj) : {};
}
// set the localstorage url map
function setOpenPopups(object) {
localStorage.setItem('mypopups', JSON.stringify(object))
}
// open the popup
function popup(url, title) {
var popups = getOpenPopups();
// check whether popup with this url is already open
// if not then set it and open the popup
if (!popups[url]) {
popups[url] = true;
setOpenPopups(popups);
return window.open('abc', 'cde');
}
else {
return false;
}
}
jsFiddle

From w3c documentation we can see that window.open() returns a reference to the newly created window, or null if the call failed. That means we can keep it in memory and check for closed flag of that window.
var newWindow = window.open('/some/path', 'TestWindow');
// ...
if (!newWindow.closed) {
}
Keep in mind that if window with following name exists, page will be loaded in the same window without opening new one.
Other variants of name parameter like _blank, _self, _top, _parent you can find in official docs too.

window.name storage for a named window in <=IE7

I have an application that uses window.name as a fallback storage to sessionStorage.
Example (simplified for brevity):
function setData(data){
window.name = JSON.stringify(data);
}
function getData(data){
return JSON.parse(window.name);
}
This all works fine and dandy in just about all browsers. However, I have recently discovered that this DOES NOT work in IE7 and below when the window is launched with a target.
winning.html
If I launch the winning.html file from the above A, using IE7, getData will always return "bob", regardless of what we try to set through setData.
If I modify the launch link like so (remove the target), it will set and remember data correctly.
winning.html
The problem is that I do not always have control of that originating link. Is there any way around this?

As is often the case, putting this problem down for a couple of days, and then coming back to it fresh has revealed the answer.
I tested the bug using this script (from this Sitepoint article) for the window.name session storage.
As you might guess, this script is not affected by the bug in my original post. Why? What makes this one work, and my simple example above not work? This bit right here is the key:
// page unload event
if (window.addEventListener) window.addEventListener("unload", Save, false);
else if (window.attachEvent) window.attachEvent("onunload", Save);
else window.onunload = Save;
For some reason, you MUST save the data back into the window.name container within the window's unload event.
Beware of using only the onunload method for this, as mobile safari will not remember the data. To get mobile safari to persist the data in window.name, you must save it manually before onunload. Essentially, for maximum compatibility, you must do both: save in onunload; save manually whenever new data is set.

window.name probably holds the name of the window which is set when you use target="bob", which actualy is the name of the window or frame ...so just use another global variable for example window._session ... if you have frames it would be nice to use window.top._session. FYI: All global JS variables are stored in window so if you define a global variable just like that: var name = "hello" ... you can access it also as window.name

JavaScript - Reference Browser Window by name? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Access a window by window name
(7 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
When you create a new browser window, you pass it a name like this:
myWindow = window.open('http://www.google.com', "googleWindow");
Later you can access the window from the variable you saved it as:
myWindow.close();
Is it possible to access and manipulate a window by it's name (googleWindow) instead of the variable?
If it is not possible, what is the point giving windows names?

No. Without a reference to the window, you can't find it again, by name or otherwise. There is no collection of windows.
UPDATE: Here's how you could do it yourself:
var windows = {};
function openWindow(url, name, features) {
windows[name] = window.open(url, name, features);
return windows[name];
}
Now, openWindow will always open the window, and if the window already exists, it will load the given URL in that window and return a reference to that window. Now you can also implement findWindow:
function findWindow(name) {
return windows[name];
}
Which will return the window if it exists, or undefined.
You should also have closeWindow, so you don't keep references to windows that you opened yourself:
function closeWindow(name) {
var window = windows[name];
if(window) {
window.close();
delete windows[name];
}
}
If it is not possible, what is the point giving windows names?
The name is used internally by the browser to manage windows. If you call window.open with the same name, it won't open a new window but instead load the URL into the previously opened window. There are a few more things, from MDN window.open():
If a window with the name strWindowName already exists, then strUrl is loaded into the existing window. In this case the return value of the method is the existing window and strWindowFeatures is ignored. Providing an empty string for strUrl is a way to get a reference to an open window by its name without changing the window's location. To open a new window on every call of window.open(), use the special value _blank for strWindowName.

Linus G Thiel says that you cannot do this in javascript. Oddly enough, his answer lists an excerpt from MDN that sounds like it tells how to do this. The line was:
"Providing an empty string for strUrl is a way to get a reference to
an open window by its name without changing the window's location."
I tried this and it works for me.
winref = window.open('', 'thatname', '', true);
winref.close();
However, this may only work if you opened the window from your page. And if that's true, then it's kind of pointless to do a window.open just to get the reference. You probably already have the reference, in that case.

Mark Goldfain's solution no longer works as written as of 9/8/2015
As per this w3 specification,
If the first argument is the empty string, then the url argument must
be interpreted as "about:blank".
I believe this is a difference between HTML4 and HTML5.
IE and Chrome have updated this behavior to match this specification, while Mark's solution still works on FF (though I imagine that they'll fix this soon). A few weeks ago this worked on all major browsers.
My particular problem involved window control while navigating, where the chat window opening is black boxed as well as most of the code on the page - redefining window.open was right out. My solution involved calling the blank window with the reference before calling the function which called the chat window. When the user navigated away from the page, I was able to rely on the fact that windows other than the original parent are not allowed to modify the child window, and so I was able to use Mark Goldfain's solution unchanged.

The solution provided by Mark Goldfain can be edited to work with the new browsers, at least to open a window and keep a reference to it between page refresh.
var winref = window.open('', 'MyWindowName', '', true);
if(winref.location.href === 'about:blank'){
winref.location.href = 'http://example.com';
}
or in function format
function openOnce(url, target){
// open a blank "target" window
// or get the reference to the existing "target" window
var winref = window.open('', target, '', true);
// if the "target" window was just opened, change its url
if(winref.location.href === 'about:blank'){
winref.location.href = url;
}
return winref;
}
openOnce('http://example.com', 'MyWindowName');

I ended up using the following:
var newwindows = {};
function popitup(url, nm) {
if ((newwindows[nm] == null) || (newwindows[nm].closed)) {
newwindows[nm] = window.open(url, nm, 'width=1200,height=650,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');
}
newwindows[nm].focus();
}
then referenced using:
<button type="button" onclick="popitup('url/link.aspx?a=bc',this.value)" value="uniqueName">New</button>