Opening a Modal Window

window.showModalDialog(   "http://www.samspublishing.com/",   "samsWindow",   "dialogWidth=640,dialogHeight=480,status=no, center=yes"); 

Both major browsers support some proprietary extensions to the window object, but for obvious reasons these are not covered here. However, there is one exception: Internet Explorer is capable of creating modal windows, something that is quite common in intranet applications in which the browser type can be mandated by the IT staff.

The method associated with that is window.showModalDialog(), expecting a URL, a name, and a set of options (which you will find listed in Table 9.2).

Table 9.2. Window Options

Option	Description
center	Centers the window
dialogHeight	Height of the window
dialogLeft	Horizontal position of the window
dialogTop	Vertical position of the window
dialogWidth	Width of the window
help	Toggles the help symbol in the top-right corner
status	Toggles the status bar
resizeable	Whether the window may be resized by the user

The following listing opens such a dialog, centers it, and gives it a size of 640x480 pixels.

Opening a Modal Window (modal.html)

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<script language="JavaScript"   type="text/javascript"> if (window.showModalDialog) {   window.showModalDialog(     "http://www.samspublishing.com/",     "samsWindow",     "dialogWidth=640,dialogHeight=480,status=no, center=yes"); } </script> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0672328801" target="samsWindow">This book at  Amazon</a> 

Figure 9.2 shows the modal window produced by the preceding code.

Figure 9.2. The modal window (Internet Explorer only).