popup

NN n/a IE 5.5(Win) DOM n/a

A popup object is a featureless rectangular space that has none of the typical browser window chrome (borders, scrollbars, title bar, etc.) nor any reference path back to the main document. Scripts must create the popup object to a specific size and location, and populate the window with content by assigning an HTML string to the popup's document.body.innerHTML property. Your scripts must also help this region stand out from the document by assigning background colors and borders to either the popup's document.body.style property or the styles of elements inside the popup.

While this popup object holds what is essentially a document object, it is not related to the window object in any way, and therefore may not load external documents. It does, however, have the helpful characteristic of transcending frame and even browser window borders, giving the appearance of an operating-system level HTML content holder. Thus, you could use it for a drop-down menu or an annotation that needs to flow across frame borders or extend beyond the browser window edge.

A popup is a transient visual element. A click anywhere outside of the popup causes the popup to disappear. But you can assign the full range of mouse events to the elements in the popup's document, for effects such as rollovers and menu item clicks. The HTML content may also contain images.

To create a popup object, use the window.createPopup( ) method. Here is a simple example of the typical creation, population, and display sequence:

var popup = window.createPopup( );
var bod = popup.document.body;
bod.style.border = "3px solid #ff8800";
bod.style.padding = "2px";
bod.style.backgroundColor = "lightyellow";
bod.innerHTML = 
  <p style='font-family:Arial, sans-serif; font-size:10px'>Some popup text.</p>";
popup.show(100, 100, 100, 26, document.body);"

Object Model Reference

popupObjectRef

Object-Specific Properties

document

isOpen

Object-Specific Methods

hide( )

show( )

Object-Specific Event Handler Properties

None.

document	NN n/a IE 5.5(Win) DOM n/a
	Read-only
Returns a reference to the document object inside the popup object. Most (but not all) regular document object properties apply to the popup's document object. It is the primary gateway to assigning HTML content to the popup. This property is read-only, but the document object's properties are read/write to allow you to assign values to its content.

Example

popupRef.document.body.innerHTML = "<p>Howdy, pardner!</p>";

Value
document object reference.

Default
The current document object.

isOpen	NN n/a IE 5.5(Win) DOM n/a
	Read-only
Returns a Boolean value revealing whether the popup object is visible. Even after the popup object is hidden, its content is still accessible to scripts.

Example

if (popupRef.isOpen) { popupRef.hide( ); }

Value
Boolean value: true \| false.

Default
false

hide( )	NN n/a IE 5.5(Win) DOM n/a

Hides the popup object. Generally invoked from scripts triggered by user actions on the popup's content.

Parameters
None.

Returned Value
Nothing.

show( )	NN n/a IE 5.5(Win) DOM n/a
show(left, top, width, height[, positioningElemRef])
Shows the popup object, usually after its content has been assigned. All dimensions and position are set via parameters. The position may optionally be established relative to an element in the main document. Position and positioning element parameters may come from event object properties (event.clientX, event.clientY, and event.srcElement).

Parameters

Horizontal pixel coordinate relative to the left edge of the screen or, if specified by the optional parameter, an HTML element. Vertical pixel coordinate relative to the top edge of the screen or, if specified by the optional parameter, an HTML element. Outer pixel width of the popup space. Outer pixel height of the popup space. An optional reference to any element accessible to the script invoking the method. Establishes a coordinate context for the left and top parameters.

Returned Value
None.