The window Object
The browser window encompasses the entire browser environment, including parts of the window âchromeâ (the part of the browser that surrounds the document), the actual web page, and even the userâs experiences.
The window
object is global and
always present even if its presence is implicitly, rather than
explicitly, stated. In previous chapters weâve used functions such as
alert
and eval
, and these functions may seem
âindependentâ of any object model. However, theyâre implicitly a part of
the window
objectâas is the document
and other second-level objects,
global variables, and other objects not associated with any other object
within an object model.
The window
has interest beyond
being just a parent to all other elements. Through it you can manually
set the status in the status bar of the browser, open a new window,
resize one thatâs already open, and then close it again. This is handy
if youâre providing separate windows for help or additional information,
though with the growing popularity of DHTML and Ajax, much of this now
occurs within a document rather than a separate window.
The window
object methods and
properties fall into four categories: creating and managing new windows,
manipulating the behavior of existing windows, serving as timers, and
being the parent of the other objects in the BOM.
For the first category, creating new windows, three methods provide quick pop-up windows (each for a specific purpose), while a fourth can create ...
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