Forum:Opening a link in a popup window?

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Hi, is it possible to open a link in a popup window? My goal is to have a link (text or an image) that opens an external page (related to the wiki page) in a small popup window. I couldn't find anything about this in the MediaWiki or Wikia help sections. MarkWiesemann 22:00, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I suppose it could be done using JavaScript...--Leon:2323 | SMARTSIG: Apply now 22:19, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Forcing the opening of links into new windows or popup windows, in our modern world of tabbed browsing where people are used to being able to control where links open, is highly discouraged, deprecated, and unwanted, especially in MediaWiki. If you want to do it for yourself, you can just ctrl+click or shift+click in most browsers (or right-click for the context menu). If you want to force it upon others, please reconsider. --Splarka (talk) 02:14, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm also not a big fan of unneeded popup windows. And when I use them, I declare them in a way that they work also without JS and don't cause pain for people that use e.g. CTRL+click. But in this case I would say that it makes sense because I'd like to show a rather short information related to the wiki page that can't be included directly in the wiki.

Therefore, my question again: Is it possible to open a link in a popup window? MarkWiesemann 09:14, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

You're talking about using target="_blank" which is not a valid XHTML attribute, and a fully Standards compliant browser therefore shouldn't even consider that attribute as something that exists. It's not possible to do that without a modification of the software or adding .js to the page to change links or open windows. Perhaps you could use tooltips if the information is that short. Like this: Hover over this text. Or if it's bigger there is an extension which can create special boxes which display in a corner of the window or content (can't remember exactly where) which display when something is rolled over. They are like tooltips except they have a larger size and you can do multiline sets of information in them.

Remember this. If the website says to open in the same window. The browser can open in the same window or in a new tab/window. If the website says to open in a new window. Then the browser can open in a new tab/window but it normally doesn't have the ability to open in the same page. Which causes thousands of people, most likely 85% of readers massive issues. Furthermore, while using target is not only non-standards compliant it also does not have control over where the window opens, what it's size is, or the ability to stop the address bar or tool bars from showing up. Which is something that javascript can only do. And if you are displaying small information this stuff should not show up, and you can't shrink the screen without javascript. ~Dantman^(talk) 09:35, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe I should clarify about the displayed information: I'm talking about a Google Map. I know that there is an extension for MediaWiki, but this extension causes JS errors in some cases, and it has several bugs and problems (like a too small information window or non-working icons). Therefore, the map should be on an external server where all the problems are not given and the map is working as expected. And for this map, I'd like to have the popup window. It is not really needed to have a popup, but IMO a popup is more sufficient than a normal page. MarkWiesemann 11:49, 13 March 2007 (UTC)