Q645 When using window.open for the second time on a already opened window, how can I bring the window in front of the main browser window?

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Q645 When using window.open for the second time on a already opened window, how can I bring the window in front of the main browser window?

You can set a window as being the "active" window by giving it the focus:

windowName.focus()

You can wrap that up with the window creation using:

windowName = window.open('blah.htm');
windowName.focus();

This is only possible in JavaScript 1.1, so you might want to code two different functions, one which does this and one which doesn't:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"><!--
function openMyWindow() {
    windowName = window.open('blah.htm');
}
//--></SCRIPT>

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1"><!--
function openMyWindow() {
    windowName = window.open('blah.htm');
    windowName.focus();
}
//--></SCRIPT>

The following was submitted by Dave Watts

As was said in a previous answer, you use <window>.focus( ) to bring the window to the front. Adding this time to a function to open the window can be a pain if you're using an inline window open (with onClick and the like).

You can achieve the same result by adding the following to the <head> of the window you are opening:

<script language="JavaScript"> <!--
   self.focus();
//--> </script>

Then, when the page is loaded (or loaded again) it brings itself forward. I did this for my vanity site's remote webcam window. This is the link used to open the window (pretty much standard):

<a href="#" onClick="window.open('camremote.html','camWindow','menubar=no,status=no,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,width=320,height=240,toolbar=no,location=no,directories=no'); return false;">Remote Cam</a>

This is the page that is opened:

<html>
<head>
<title>Remote Cam</title>
<script language="JavaScript"><!--
   //  Bring self to the front
   self.focus();
--></script>
</head>
 <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0">
  <applet code="visionGS.class" width="320" height="240">
   <param name="refresh" value="30">
   <param name="image" value="./cam/cam.jpg">
  </applet>
 </body>
</html>

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