232954 - 'Spoof' popups in JavaScript

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 187108

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, enhancement)

Description

[thesh_bugs]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

If you have a script like this:

var popup=window.open("http://www.mozilla.org","popup",'width=320,height=240');
  if (popup) {
    document.write('[insert page content]');
}
  else {
    document.write('Disable your popup blocker');
}

You can force users to disable their popup blockers, otherwise they won't be
able to view the page. I believe that a potential solution to this is to add an
option to spoof, in a way, the popup. So if (and only if) Mozilla blocks the
popup it should still execute the script as if the popup was opened, with the
exception of anything that would otherwise occur inside the popup window. If
added, it should probably not be enabled by default.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:

Comment 1

[thesh_bugs]

Attachment: Test case.

Added test case with JavaScript.

Comment 2

[HJ]

"You can force users to disable their popup blockers"

No, you can't, never. All you can do is blow away potential visitors, if you're
stupid enough to use something like this. 

I am not aware of a single site that blocks visitors for not opening their
popups. Can you add some, or even a single URL?

Oh, and I assume this will be WONTFIX'ed anyway.

Comment 3

[Boris Zbarsky [:bzbarsky]]

This is already filed (and wontfixed, iirc).  Please search and mark this duplicate.

Comment 4

[Stewart Gordon]

My guess is that they're on sites that rely on popups for their UI, rather than
adverts.  But I don't know.

But this was bad design even before popup blockers were invented.  How many of
you didn't tend to close popups before they were loaded?

But yes, there are too many control freaks out there.  Do we reckon this should
block bug 86194 and/or bug 176958?

Comment 5

[thesh_bugs]

(In reply to comment #2)
> "You can force users to disable their popup blockers"
> 
> No, you can't, never. All you can do is blow away potential visitors, if you're
> stupid enough to use something like this. 

Point taken, but there were similar things done at places like proboards
(conforums still does this). It is rare, but I do come accross it on occassions.

(In reply to comment #3)
> This is already filed (and wontfixed, iirc).  Please search and mark this
duplicate.

The closest I could find is Bug 187108 - is that the one you are talking about?

Comment 6

[thesh_bugs]

I'll mark it anyway...

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 187108 ***