DHTML Lab: HierMenus CENTRAL: Version 3.x FAQ #6 - dhtmlab.com

Frequently Asked Question #6

Entered: Feb 15, 1999

All the questions, above, have an answer that relates to the same powerful, but seldom used feature of the menus: The ability to include a javascript: URL in the menu arrays. Any JavaScript statement or function call can be used in place of an https:// URL. This gives you the ability to have a menu link do...anything!

This feature was introduced and discussed in detail in version 2.1.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All versions since version 2.1 are compatible, with the exception of version 3.05, which inadvertently introduced a related problem.

Let's illustrate the use of javascript: URLs by answering the questions above directly. For the sake of the examples, we'll assume that you want to link to DHTML Lab.

1. Loading a page into the full window.
   Assign the URL to the location property of the JavaScript top object, which represents the full window:
   

   "My Favorite DHTML Site","javascript:top.location='https://www.dhtmlab.com/'",0,

2. Loading a page into a new window.
   Use the window.open() method, placing the URL as the first argument. You may also specify any of the other arguments of the open() method:
   

   "My Favorite DHTML Site","javascript:window.open('https://www.dhtmlab.com/')",0,

3. Loading a page into any frame.
   Like the first example, we can assign the URL to the location property of any frame. If you have a frame built with a NAME= attribute value of seventhFrame (<FRAME NAME="seventhFrame">), and you want a linked-to page to appear in it, then the JavaScript statement in your array would be:
   

   "My Favorite DHTML Site","javascript:top.seventhFrame.location='https://www.dhtmlab.com/'",0,

4. Specifying a target.
   The default target frame is, of course, specified by the mainFrName parameter, introduced in version 1, column 18. Other targets can be specified using the methods illustrated above.