Detect blocked popup in Chrome

Question

I am aware of javascript techniques to detect whether a popup is blocked in other browsers (as described in the answer to this question). Here's the basic test:

var newWin = window.open(url);

if(!newWin || newWin.closed || typeof newWin.closed=='undefined')
{
    //POPUP BLOCKED
}

But this does not work in Chrome. The "POPUP BLOCKED" section is never reached when the popup is blocked.

Of course, the test is working to an extent since Chrome doesn't actually block the popup, but opens it in a tiny minimized window at the lower right corner which lists "blocked" popups.

What I would like to do is be able to tell if the popup was blocked by Chrome's popup blocker. I try to avoid browser sniffing in favor of feature detection. Is there a way to do this without browser sniffing?

Edit: I have now tried making use of newWin.outerHeight, newWin.left, and other similar properties to accomplish this. Google Chrome returns all position and height values as 0 when the popup is blocked.

Unfortunately, it also returns the same values even if the popup is actually opened for an unknown amount of time. After some magical period (a couple of seconds in my testing), the location and size information is returned as the correct values. In other words, I'm still no closer to figuring this out. Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

This fragment incorporates all of the above - For some reason - StackOverflow is excluding the first and last lines of code in the code block below, so I wrote a blog on it. For a full explanation and the rest of the (downloadable) code have a look at my blog at thecodeabode.blogspot.com

var PopupWarning = {

    init : function()
    {

        if(this.popups_are_disabled() == true)
        {
            this.redirect_to_instruction_page();
        }
    },

    redirect_to_instruction_page : function()
    {
        document.location.href = "http://thecodeabode.blogspot.com";
    },

    popups_are_disabled : function()
    {
        var popup = window.open("http://localhost/popup_with_chrome_js.html", "popup_tester", "width=1,height=1,left=0,top=0");

        if(!popup || popup.closed || typeof popup == 'undefined' || typeof popup.closed=='undefined')
        {
            return true;
        }

        window.focus();
        popup.blur();

        //
        // Chrome popup detection requires that the popup validates itself - so we need to give
        // the popup time to load, then call js on the popup itself
        //
        if(navigator && (navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase()).indexOf("chrome") > -1)
        {
            var on_load_test = function(){PopupWarning.test_chrome_popups(popup);};     
            var timer = setTimeout(on_load_test, 60);
            return;
        }


        popup.close();
        return false;
    },

    test_chrome_popups : function(popup)
    {
        if(popup && popup.chrome_popups_permitted && popup.chrome_popups_permitted() == true)
        {
            popup.close();
            return true;
        }

        //
        // If the popup js fails - popups are blocked
        //
        this.redirect_to_instruction_page();
    }
};

PopupWarning.init();

Answer 2

The following is a jQuery solution to popup blocker checking. It has been tested in FF (v11), Safari (v6), Chrome (v23.0.127.95) & IE (v7 & v9). Update the _displayError function to handle the error message as you see fit.

var popupBlockerChecker = {
        check: function(popup_window){
            var _scope = this;
            if (popup_window) {
                if(/chrome/.test(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase())){
                    setTimeout(function () {
                        _scope._is_popup_blocked(_scope, popup_window);
                     },200);
                }else{
                    popup_window.onload = function () {
                        _scope._is_popup_blocked(_scope, popup_window);
                    };
                }
            }else{
                _scope._displayError();
            }
        },
        _is_popup_blocked: function(scope, popup_window){
            if ((popup_window.innerHeight > 0)==false){ scope._displayError(); }
        },
        _displayError: function(){
            alert("Popup Blocker is enabled! Please add this site to your exception list.");
        }
    };

Usage:

var popup = window.open("http://www.google.ca", '_blank');
popupBlockerChecker.check(popup);

Hope this helps! :)

Answer 3

I'm going to just copy/paste the answer provided here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/27725432/892099 by DanielB . works on chrome 40 and it's very clean. no dirty hacks or waiting involves.

function popup(urlToOpen) {
  var popup_window=window.open(urlToOpen,"myWindow","toolbar=no, location=no, directories=no, status=no, menubar=no, scrollbars=yes, resizable=yes, copyhistory=yes, width=400, height=400");            
  try {
    popup_window.focus();   
  }
  catch (e) {
    alert("Pop-up Blocker is enabled! Please add this site to your exception list.");
  }
}

Answer 4

Rich's answer isn't going to work anymore for Chrome. Looks like Chrome actually executes any Javascript in the popup window now. I ended up checking for a screenX value of 0 to check for blocked popups. I also think I found a way to guarantee that this property is final before checking. This only works for popups on your domain, but you can add an onload handler like this:

var myPopup = window.open("site-on-my-domain", "screenX=100");
if (!myPopup)
    alert("failed for most browsers");
else {
    myPopup.onload = function() {
        setTimeout(function() {
            if (myPopup.screenX === 0)
                alert("failed for chrome");
        }, 0);
    };
}

As many have reported, the "screenX" property sometimes reports non-zero for failed popups, even after onload. I experienced this behavior as well, but if you add the check after a zero ms timeout, the screenX property always seems to output a consistent value.

Let me know if there are ways to make this script more robust. Seems to work for my purposes though.

Answer 5

Jason's answer is the only method I can think of too, but relying on position like that is a little bit dodgy!

These days, you don't really need to ask the question “was my unsolicited popup blocked?”, because the answer is invariably “yes” — all the major browsers have the popup blocker turned on by default. Best approach is only ever to window.open() in response to a direct click, which is almost always allowed.

Answer 6

HI

I modified the solutions described above slightly and think that it is working for Chrome at least. My solution is made to detect if popup is blocked when the main page is opened, not when popup is opened, but i am sure there are some people that can modify it.:-) The drawback here is that the popup-window is displayed for a couple of seconds (might be possible to shorten a bit) when there is no popup-blocker.

I put this in the section of my 'main' window

<script type="text/JavaScript" language="JavaScript">

 var mine = window.open('popuptest.htm','popuptest','width=1px,height=1px,left=0,top=0,scrollbars=no');
 if(!mine|| mine.closed || typeof mine.closed=='undefined')
  {
    popUpsBlocked = true       
    alert('Popup blocker detected ');
    if(mine)
      mine.close();
 }
 else
 {
    popUpsBlocked = false    
    var cookieCheckTimer = null;
    cookieCheckTimer =  setTimeout('testPopup();', 3500);
 }


function testPopup()
{
  if(mine)
  {
    if(mine.test())
    {
       popUpsBlocked = false;
    }
    else
    {
        alert('Popup blocker detected ');
         popUpsBlocked = true;
     }
    mine.close();
}

} 
</script>

The popuptest looks like this:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
    <title>Popup test</title>
<script type="text/javascript" language="Javascript">
   function test() {if(window.innerHeight!=0){return true;} else return false;}
</script>
</head>

<body>
</body>
</html>

As i call the test-function on the popup-page after 3500 ms the innerheight has been set correctly by Chrome.

I use the variable popUpsBlocked to know if the popups are displayed or not in other javascripts. i.e

function ShowConfirmationMessage()
{
if(popUpsBlocked)
 { 
  alert('Popups are blocked, can not display confirmation popup. A mail will be sent with the confirmation.');
 } 
 else
 { 
  displayConfirmationPopup();
 }
 mailConfirmation();
}