Javascript “window.open” code won't work in Internet Explorer 7 or 8

Question

I am using this chunk of jQuery/Javascript code on my site to open a popup window:

$('#change_photo_link').click(function(){
    $id = $('#id').attr('value');

    window.open("photo.upload.php?id=" + $id,"Upload Photo",
    "menubar=no,width=430,height=100,toolbar=no");
});

This code works on Firefox and Chrome. It does not work on IE7 or IE8 (haven't tested IE6). IE pops up an error on the line window.open. Why? The error that IE gives is "Invalid Argument" and that's all.

Answer 1

It's the space in the second parameter that's causing it. If you use "UploadPhoto" instead of "Upload Photo", it works:

$('#change_photo_link').click(function(){
    $id = $('#id').attr('value');

    window.open("photo.upload.php?id=" + $id,"UploadPhoto",
    "menubar=no,width=430,height=100,toolbar=no");
});

I can't seem to find any official reasons as to why having a space in the windowName parameter of window.open() causes an error, but it's likely just an implementation detail. The windowName is used as an internal reference, and can be used as a value for a target attribute of an anchor or form, so I guess IE can't handle that internally. The reference docs for Gecko/Firefox says that this parameter should not contain spaces, but clearly current versions of Gecko don't have a problem with it if it does.

Answer 2

The windowName argument can only contain alphanumeric characters and underscores (i.e. [A-Z0-9_]).

You must change

window.open("photo.upload.php?id=" + $id,"Upload Photo",
"menubar=no,width=430,height=100,toolbar=no");

to

window.open("photo.upload.php?id=" + $id,"Upload_Photo",
"menubar=no,width=430,height=100,toolbar=no");

or some other name that doesn't have spaces.

See https://developer.mozilla.org/En/DOM/Window.open.