DOM Scripting comments: Window popping http://domscripting.com/blog/display/56 The question of whether to open a link in a new window is an oldie but a goodie. en JohnO http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment302 OK deprecating ‘target’ on a tags is fine. But what about on form tags. Other than ‘target’ how can you make a form submit open the action in a new window? I hope this wasn’t deprecated?

]]> Sun, 09 Apr 2006 12:18:03 GMT Catherine Donaldson http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment296 Hmmm,

class="windowWorthy" or class="newWindowWorthy"

I’ll have to think more about the significance of all this as I still set target to blank via javascript for rel=external on my site. I wasn’t aware I was being naughty in doing this. I’ll probably just end up agreeing that new windows shouldn’t be enforced, I think.

]]> Sun, 02 Apr 2006 14:50:56 GMT Jeremy Keith http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment294 Mats, I really like the idea of adding rel="help" to indicate contextual help that should open in a new window.

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:34:59 GMT Sean-E http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment292 >hat said, the class name I chose, “popup”, isn’t very semantically meaningful. It’s not much better than assigning class names like “big” or “red”.

How about "OutOfTheWIndow"

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2006 23:25:45 GMT Mats Lindblad http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment291 I can’t belive no-one has mentioned this but isn’t it the most logical thing for contextual help to have rel="help" set? It correct, it’s semantic and you can attach a window.open to every link that has rel="help" set …

I have a small test ready: http://slipsnisse.se/examples/datevalidation.php

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2006 09:55:30 GMT Robert Nyman http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment290 Humbly, and not to be so "oh-please-see-me!", a mention of where the discussion originated (this time around) would’ve been nice… :-)

(at http://www.robertnyman.com/2006/02/13/how-evil-is-the-target-attribute/)

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2006 06:30:42 GMT Elaine http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment289 Tangentially, the latest Firefox has a setting to force all new windows into new tabs instead. One of the best things that ever happened to me!

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2006 03:13:22 GMT Tanny O'Haley http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment288 I’m not a fan of popups either, but how is a class of "popup" any different from the target attribute, doesn’t it "describe how content should be displayed, not what it means"?

]]> Thu, 30 Mar 2006 02:53:05 GMT Lachlan Hunt http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment287 IMHO, there are absolutely no valid use cases for using popup windows and they must not be used under any circumstances. As for choosing the target attribute or window.open(), the target attribute is better for at least 2 reasons:

  1. It’s easier to configure browsers to ignore the target attribute when it would open a new window (there’s a option in the options dialog in Firefox). It is possible with window.open() as well, but not as easy (it requires setting a few hidden prefs in about:config).
  2. Users can be alerted to the use of the target attribute, such as through a user stylesheet, which allows them to make an informed choice for each link. That’s not possible with window.open().
]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2006 20:20:03 GMT Douglas Clifton http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment286 Hmm…

class="window" class="link" class="external"

You could also use multiple classes, "new window", "external link"…

]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2006 19:30:37 GMT Jeremy Keith http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment285 If you’re using frames, then you’re using a frameset doctype. The target attribute is valid in frameset doctypes.

Everything I’ve said above (and everything in Roger’s article) refers to strict non-frameset doctypes.

]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:38:11 GMT Gerry Hornik http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment284 Addendum:

In the penultimate sentence, the tag I was referring to is the "base" tag with a "target" attribute that sets the default target for every link on the page.

Gerry Hornik

]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:34:17 GMT Gerry Hornik http://domscripting.com/blog/display.php/56#comment283 Jeremy,

I understand all that, but I am working with a Web application that uses frames in the window. The content in one frame has links that are intended to bring up new content in another frame. This is, of course, done using the target attribute on the links. However, to avoid having to include the target attribute on every link in a page (which could be several), it was convenient (and more efficient) to use the tag. With that deprecated how can it be accomplished without adding the target to every link individually?

Thanks, Gerry Hornik http://www.cognistar.com/

]]> Wed, 29 Mar 2006 15:32:29 GMT