In our programming and scripting world we many times come across requirements that do not find a way out, and are finally pushed in a category of Issues that cannot be resolved.
Similar thing came to me this morning when i had to close a browser tab on clicking a link on the page.
No big deal ;)
Within few
minutes i scripted something as under:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function closeWindow()
{
window.close();
}
</script>
and then i called the JavaScript
function in my page's html. All worked well.
It all started when i accidentally checked my page in Mozilla Firefox. With all tweaks and all irrelevant script code written there was no way out.
*Some scripts i tried by searching on web. all commented script is what i tried. Nothing happenned.
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
function closeWindow()
{
/* 1
window.open('','_parent','');
window.close();
window.open('','_self','');
window.close();
*/
/* 2
window.addEventListener("beforeunload", function (e) {
var confirmationMessage = "\o/";
(e || window.event).returnValue = confirmationMessage;
return ConfirmationMessage;
});
*/
/* 3
this.focus();
self.opener=this;
self.close();
*/
/* 4
window.open('javascript:window.open("", "_self","");window.close();', '_self');
*/
/*
var Browser = navigator.appName;
var indexB = Browser.indexOf('Explorer');
if (indexB > 0) {
var indexV = navigator.userAgent.indexOf('MSIE') + 5;
var Version = navigator.userAgent.substring(indexV, indexV +1);
if (Version >= 7) {
window.open('', '_self', '');
window.close();
}
else if (Version == 6) {
window.opener = null;
window.close();
}
else {
window.opener = '';
window.close();
}
}
else {
window.close();
}
*/
}
</script>
Then i came across few things that i had ignored, like window.close works only for browser windows that were opened using script, which means that you can close a browser window using window.close only if you had opened it using window.open. But nevertheless IE (Internet Explorer) is an exception.
I am not sure whether this is a loophole or is a functionality provided which any other browser does not have. In IE you can close a browser window using window.close even if it is not opened using window.open.
While searching i came across the following:
dom.allow_scripts_to_close_windows
This is a FireFox pref in about:config file of FireFox, by default its default value is false and it does not allow to close a browser window using window.close if it is not opened using window.open.
If this value is changed to true, then it works fine. But i could not find a way to change it programmatically and more over no one would want an application to change his/her system's application settings.
On your local environment you can change this value to true and check. It works. You can access the pref as mentioned:
1) Type about:config in the Firefox address bar
2) Look for dom.allow_scripts_to_close_windows [default value is set to false]
3) Double click this pref to set it to true.
This would allow the window.close for browser window not opened using window.open.
So this was some research i did and there was no option i could find to close the browser window in FireFox. If you guys have come across similar situation and were able to solve it, i request you people to please share the valuable information.
Regards
Vivek Joshi