window.open(url, '_blank'); not working on iMac/Safari

Question

I've build a web page that let's you select a page name from a drop down list and then transfers the browser to that page. The code that does the transfer is

if (url){     window.open(url, '_blank'); }  

where "url" is the page selected.

A console log just before the window.open line prints something like:

    executing: window.open(http://www.mywebsite.com/44/threats.html, '_blank') 

and then the browsers opens the page in a new tab.

This works fine on Windows 7 for all the browsers, including Safari.

On an iMac it works for Firefox but not for Safari.

Does anyone know why iMac/Safari won't do this?

Answer 1

Safari is blocking any call to window.open() which is made inside an async call.

The solution that I found to this problem is to call window.open before making an asnyc call and set the location when the promise resolves.

var windowReference = window.open();  myService.getUrl().then(function(url) {      windowReference.location = url; }); 

Answer 2

To use window.open() in safari you must put it in an element's onclick event attribute.

For example: <button class='btn' onclick='window.open("https://www.google.com", "_blank");'>Open Google search</button>