Can I pass a JavaScript variable to another browser window?

Question

I have a page which spawns a popup browser window. I have a JavaScript variable in the parent browser window and I would like to pass it to the popped-up browser window.

Is there a way to do this? I know this can be done across frames in the same browser window but I'm not sure if it can be done across browser windows.

Answer 1

Putting code to the matter, you can do this from the parent window:

var thisIsAnObject = {foo:'bar'}; var w = window.open("http://example.com"); w.myVariable = thisIsAnObject; 

or this from the new window:

var myVariable = window.opener.thisIsAnObject; 

I prefer the latter, because you will probably need to wait for the new page to load anyway, so that you can access its elements, or whatever you want.

Answer 2

Provided the windows are from the same security domain, and you have a reference to the other window, yes.

Javascript's open() method returns a reference to the window created (or existing window if it reuses an existing one). Each window created in such a way gets a property applied to it "window.opener" pointing to the window which created it.

Either can then use the DOM (security depending) to access properties of the other one, or its documents,frames etc.