What triggers the popup blockers in browsers?

Question

In what circumstances do blockup blockers in browsers activate, and in what circumstances do they not?

Can you ever use an onclick event on a link to trigger a popup (other than target = _blank) or will that always trigger the blockers?

Answer 1

Most popup blockers are triggered when a popup is launched indirectly from a user action.

Some popup blockers are triggered when a user clicks, but most are not. Basically, if the popup is triggered within a click handler (or code that it calls), you are generally okay.

If possible, I would recommend avoiding popups entirely. They tend to disrupt the user experience, with a few exceptions.