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 (ie [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 .