Popup Windows: Targeting the Opener

Once a popup window has been created, linking from the popup back to the main window (i.e. the window which opened the popup) is a little trickier than might be expected. The problem is that the main window doesn't have a "name" the way the popup window does. Fortunately, JavaScript provides an answer in the form of opener.

To create links in the popup window that target back to the main window, first put this JavaScript in the <HEAD> of the popup page:

<SCRIPT TYPE="text/javascript">
<!--
function targetopener(mylink, closeme, closeonly)
{
if (! (window.focus && window.opener))return true;
window.opener.focus();
if (! closeonly)window.opener.location.href=mylink.href;
if (closeme)window.close();
return false;
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>

A link that uses this script looks like this:

<A 
   HREF="rbex.html" 
   onClick="return targetopener(this)">my page</A>

which creates the link in this popup window.