May 15, 2000 - Closing Child Windows | WebReference

May 15, 2000 - Closing Child Windows

Yehuda Shiran May 15, 2000
Closing Child Windows
Tips: May 2000

Yehuda Shiran, Ph.D.
Doc JavaScript

The dependent window feature specifies whether the window should be a dependent child of the current (opener) window. A dependent window closes when its parent window closes. This dependent feature is only supported by Navigator 4 and above. However, we can use a bit of JavaScript to deliver a cross-browser solution. Let's use the following function to open our dependent window: 

function openDep() {
  win = window.open("depwin.html", "dep", "height=200,width=400");
}

We'll include an onUnload event handler to close the dependent window when the current window closes or a new URL is loaded:

<BODY onUnload="closeDep()">

Note that the new window will close when the current document unloads, even if the current window is still open. Here's the code for the closeDep() function:

function closeDep() {
  if (win && win.open && !win.closed) win.close();
}

Notice that we must check if the window exists before we attempt to close it. To learn more, have a look at a complete demonstration in Tutorial 1.