Can I hide a pop-Up window

[aparnesh]

I am developing an intranet application, in which, in some pages, when the user selects an option, I am using a pop-up window to retrieve the data and displaying it in the main page. The pop-up opens, fetches data, puts in main page and closes itself.

Since the user is not interacting with the pop-up, I would prefer it to be hidden. Can this be done ? I checked a Javascript book, which says the 'alwaysLowered' property can be used to send the pop-up behind other windows but this is a security feature and available only for signed scripts.

My Questions are:
1. Can the pop-up be hidden ?
2. What is a signed script ?

[GliderPilot]

It depends on the way your creating the window. I'm sure there are many ways to do it. If I remeber correctly you can do it via this method:

var win = new PopupWindow();
 
win.showPopup();
 
win.setUrl("http://www.site.com");
 
win.hidePopup();

Hope this helps you.

[aparnesh]

Sorry, it's not working. I am getting the error
"PopupWindow is undefined"

Here's the code (with what I was using earlier)

var newWindow ;
var v_Options;
var v_Bars;
v_Bars = 'directories=no, location=no, menubar=no, status=no,titlebar=no,toolbar=no';
v_Options = 'scrollbars=yes,resizable=no,Height=10,Width=10,left=100,top=100,visible=false,alwaysLowered=yes';
//newWindow = window.open("Popdata.htm",'PrintWin',v_Bars + ',' + v_Options);
newWindow = new PopUpWindow() ;
newWindow.showPopup();
newWindow.setURL("Popdata.htm");
newWindow.hidePopup();

[pojke]

Use windows called popunder. Its used often in internet advertisements.
Here u have example:
http://javascriptkit.com/script/script2/popunder.shtml

[MidiMagic]

Actually, opening a hidden window is on the list of operations forbidden for security reasons.

But there is nothing to prevent you from putting it under something. It still shows on the taskbar.

[aparnesh]

"Putting it under something" = Putting it behind another window ? That's fine with me. But how do I do that ? By setting the z-order of the window ? If it shows in the taskbar, it's acceptable.

[MidiMagic]

Just drop something else on top of it real fast, or send the focus to the page under it.

[bapjg]

I had a similar objective, and achieved it with an I frame
In the HTML :
<iframe id="Download_Frame" style="display:none; visibility:hidden;">
JunkMessage
</iframe>

In the Javascript :
MyIFrame = document.getElementById("Download_Frame");
MyIFrame.src = "MyUrl.php?params=" + Parameters;

It worked fine for me.

[aparnesh]

As far as I know, IFrame is supported only by IE. Unfortunately I need it to be cross browser compatible. Is IFrame supported by all major browsers like Firefix, Opera, etc ?

[almostbob]

This is the purpose of AJAX
cross browser compatible
no popup window issues
automatically loads in the current page

I am not good with AJAX, but I got my page loading and updating with these code samples http://daniel.lorch.cc/docs/ajax_simple/

[bapjg]

As far as I know, IFrame is supported only by IE. Unfortunately I need it to be cross browser compatible. Is IFrame supported by all major browsers like Firefix, Opera, etc ?

I used it for Firefox, IE and Opera (didn't test any others)