Windows and JavaScript (one part)

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Accessing objects of a window via another

After you open a secondary window, there is a connection between the original window and this newly opened one that allows you to cross-access objects/variables, properties of each window. But before we discuss how this is done, we need to first discuss window names, a very different kind from the one mentioned in the beginning of this section.

Look at below:

var hello=
open('page2.htm','hi','width=200,height=200')

By giving this window a name using the above method, for example, "hello", it will give you access to anything that's inside this window from other windows. Whenever we want to access anything that's inside this newly opened window, for example, to write to this window, we would do this: hello.document.write("hi!")
Ok, lets say you want to, from the current window, open a secondary window, and FROM HERE, change the background color of this newly opened window.

The radio buttons are here, but we have changed the bgcolor of another window...lets see the core code:

//for button
onClick="win1=open('page2.htm','winname',
'width=200,height=200')"

//for radio button3
onClick="win1.document.bgColor=
'lightgreen';win1.focus()"
//for radio button2
onClick="win1.document.bgColor=
'lightyellow';win1.focus()"
//for radio button3
onClick="win1.document.bgColor=
'pink';win1.focus()"

The most important part is: win1.document.bgColor, which is what caused the bgcolor to change in the secondary window, instead of the one that contains the script. Also notice that we used another method, focus(), to bring focus to the second window every time it changes.

Here's the complete listing of the window object we touched upon in this tutorial:

**windows object**
properties	methods
closed defaultStatus document Frame frames history length location name opener parent	alert blur clearTimeOut close confirm focus open prompt setTimeOut

-Tutorial introduction
-opening a new window using JavaScript
-Hiding/showing toolbars, menu bars, status bus etc upon opening a window
-reloading, closing, loading new content into a window using JavaScript
-Accessing objects of a window via another

End of tutorial