The magic of opening windows

I covered opening new windows safely in
 the post
 Links, onclick and page accessibility. Now let’s look
 more closely at the open method on the Window
  object and go through its arguments and the new window’s initial settings.

What the method does open

Calling this method on a Window object or in its context
 opens a new window or loads a new document into a window
 that’s already open.
 Method signature

window.open(String url,String název_okna,String inicializační_parametry,boolean historie)

Let’s look at the arguments one by one. I’ve given the argument names in Czech and included their types.

url
 This argument gives the URL for the new window. If it’s omitted or
 is an empty string, the window opens blank.
 název_okna
 The newly opened window is referenced by this symbolic name. The
 name lets a script manipulate the window, or it can be used as the value
 of the target attribute on a and form
  elements, as explained below.
 inicializační_parametry
 
 The initial window settings let you open it with
 specified features
 such as height, width or vertical scrollbars. If you omit the argument, the window opens with all the standard features.

If you pass it with at least one feature specified, the window opens with only that feature. According to
 the specification, a feature should take yes or no, though 1 and 0 also seem to work.
 Separate the individual features with commas.

histroie
 
 If you open the window with this argument set to
 true, no new entry is added to the window history, or rather to the
 History object.

There are several ways to use the new window. If we open it
 without a document, either by omitting url or passing an empty string,
 we can use the value of název_okna as the
 target attribute of a elements. That directs the action of the form
 or link into this window.

Initial window settings

channelMode
 Specifies whether to display the window in channel mode (IE 6.0).
 dependent
 If it’s set to yes or 1, the new window is a dependent child of the current window. For example,
 minimizing the parent window minimizes the child too.
 (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0, Opera 7.0)
 directories
 Directory buttons such as “What’s New” and “What’s Cool” (IE 6.0).
 fullscreen
 Opens the window in full-screen mode (IE 6.0).
 height
 Height of the visible part of the document in pixels.
 innerHeight
 Height of the visible part of the document in pixels (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 innerWidth
 Width of the visible part of the document in pixels (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 left
 The window’s x coordinate in pixels. Opera measures it relative to the tab.
 location
 Displays the field for entering a URL, also called the address bar.
 menubar
 The menu bar with items such as File, Edit and View (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0, IE 6.0).
 outerHeight
 Total window height in pixels (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 outerWidth
 Total window width in pixels (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 resizable (Gecko-Mozilla 1.0,IE 6.0)
 
 If this feature is omitted or set to no,
 the window has no resize handles at its edges.
 (The user may still be able to resize the window, depending on the platform.)
 
 screenX
 The window’s x coordinate in pixels (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 screenY
 The window’s y coordinate in pixels (Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 scrollbars(IE 6.0)
 The window’s horizontal or vertical scrollbar.
 status
 Shows the browser’s status bar (IE 6.0, Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 toolbar 
 Browser toolbar with Back and Forward buttons (IE 6.0, Gecko–Mozilla 1.0).
 top
 The window’s y coordinate in pixels. Opera measures it relative to the tab.
 width
 Width of the visible part of the document in pixels.

Parentheses show which browsers support the feature. I tested Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1, Mozilla 1.0 and Opera 7.0.
 If none are listed, the feature works in all those browsers. Browsers
 based on Gecko, including Phoenix, Firebird, Netscape 6.0 and Netscape 7.0, will probably behave like Mozilla.