window Object

DHTML, HTML, & CSS

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window Object

Represents an open window in the browser.

Remarks

You can use the window object to retrieve information about the state of the window. You also can use this object to gain access to the document in the window, to the events that occur in the window, and to features of the browser that affect the window.
Typically, the browser creates one window object when it opens an HTML document. However, if a document defines one or more frames (that is, contains one or more FRAME or IFRAME tags), the browser creates one window object for the original document and one additional window object for each frame. These additional objects are child windows of the original window and can be affected by actions that occur in the original. For example, closing the original window causes all child windows to close. You can also create new windows (and corresponding window objects) using methods such as open, showModalDialog, and showModelessDialog.

You can apply any window property, method, or collection to any variable or expression that evaluates to a window object, regardless of how that window was created. Additionally, you can access all window properties, methods, and collections in the current window by using the property, method, or collection name directly—that is, without prefixing it with an expression that evaluates to the current window object. However, to help make more readable code and to avoid potential ambiguities, many authors use the window keyword when accessing window properties, methods, and collections for the current window. This keyword always refers to the current window.

Note Window property, method, and collection names are reserved keywords and cannot be used as the names of variables and routines.

The dialogArguments, dialogHeight, dialogLeft, dialogTop, dialogWidth, and returnValue properties are available only for windows created using the showModalDialog and showModelessDialog methods.

This object is available in script as of Microsoft® Internet Explorer 3.0.

Windows CE

In Microsoft® Windows® CE, the document object is not available through scripting for a window opened using the open method.

Members

window Members

Example

This example displays an alert for the current window.
alert("A simple message.")
This example checks whether the current window contains child windows and, if it does, displays the names of those child windows.
if ( window.frames != null ) {
    for ( i = 0; i< window.frames.length; i++ )
        window.alert ("Child window " +i+ " is named "+window.frames(i).name);
}
This example shows a simple event handler function for the window's onload event. In the absence of a "window" element, the BODY element hosts the following window object events: onblur, onbeforeunload, onfocus, onload, and onunload.
<BODY onload="window.status='Page is loaded!'">

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