Open link in new window or focus to it if already open

Question

I have a link which should open in a new tab, but if the tab is already open, just switch to it. I\'ve tried with javascript, wnd = window.open() and than wnd.focus(), that

Answer 1

Different browsers behave differently for window.open() and focus(). For this code window.open('www.sample.com','mywindow').focus()

• Chrome 20 opens a new tab, and focuses on subsequent open() calls regardless if focus() is called or not.
• Firefox 13 opens a new tab, focuses on first open(), does not focus on subsequent open() calls/disregards focus().
• IE 8 opens a new window, honors focus().
• Safari 5 opens a new window, and focuses on subsequent open() calls regardless if focus() is called or not.

Fiddle to test with: http://jsfiddle.net/jaraics/pEG3j/

Answer 2

If you are not interested in retaining the state of a previously opened tab, you can do this:

var loadingTableWnd;
function openOrSwitchToWindow(url) {
    if (loadingTableWnd != undefined) {
        loadingTableWnd.close();
    }
    loadingTableWnd = window.open(url,'myFrame');
}

Answer 3

You shouldn't need any logic for something like this. By default, specifying the second parameter for window.open() gives the window a "name", that the browser remembers. If you try to call window.open() with the same name (after it's already been opened), it doesn't open a new window...but you might still need to call .focus() on it. Try this:

var a = window.open(url, "name");
a.focus();

Those should be the only lines of code in your function, and you don't need the loadingTableWnd variable...

Answer 4

In Firefox 66 and Chrome 74 this works for me:

 wnd = window.wnd && window.wnd.close() || window.open(url, "wnd");

Not tested in other browsers. Thanks to roberto (in the comment of the MarkZ answer) to point me on this solution. (I could not add a comment in that answer due my lack of reputation, sorry).

window.focus() solution was not fit my needs as this other one.

Answer 5

window.focus() is widely supported and seems to be working fine in both Internet Explorer and Firefox for me, the problem should be in your code. I've created a simple jsFiddle for you to test.

Answer 6

If the window is already opened and if you want to focus on that window you can use

window.open('', 'NameOfTheOpenedWindow').focus();