HTML

Living Standard — Last Updated 24 August 2018

1. 1. 7.3 The Window object
      1. 7.3.1 APIs for creating and navigating browsing contexts by name
      2. 7.3.2 Accessing other browsing contexts
      3. 7.3.3 Named access on the Window object
      4. 7.3.4 Garbage collection and browsing contexts
      5. 7.3.5 Closing browsing contexts
      6. 7.3.6 Browser interface elements
      7. 7.3.7 Script settings for Window objects
   2. 7.4 The WindowProxy exotic object
      1. 7.4.1 [[GetPrototypeOf]] ( )
      2. 7.4.2 [[SetPrototypeOf]] ( V )
      3. 7.4.3 [[IsExtensible]] ( )
      4. 7.4.4 [[PreventExtensions]] ( )
      5. 7.4.5 [[GetOwnProperty]] ( P )
      6. 7.4.6 [[DefineOwnProperty]] ( P , Desc )
      7. 7.4.7 [[Get]] ( P , Receiver )
      8. 7.4.8 [[Set]] ( P , V , Receiver )
      9. 7.4.9 [[Delete]] ( P )
      10. 7.4.10 [[OwnPropertyKeys]] ( )

7.3 The Window object

[Global=Window,
 Exposed=Window,
 LegacyUnenumerableNamedProperties]
interface Window : EventTarget {
  // the current browsing context
  [Unforgeable] readonly attribute WindowProxy window;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute WindowProxy self;
  [Unforgeable] readonly attribute Document document;
  attribute DOMString name; 
  [PutForwards=href, Unforgeable] readonly attribute Location location;
  readonly attribute History history;
  readonly attribute CustomElementRegistry customElements;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp locationbar;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp menubar;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp personalbar;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp scrollbars;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp statusbar;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute BarProp toolbar;
  attribute DOMString status;
  void close();
  readonly attribute boolean closed;
  void stop();
  void focus();
  void blur();
  // other browsing contexts
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute WindowProxy frames;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute unsigned long length;
  [Unforgeable] readonly attribute WindowProxy? top;
  attribute any opener;
  [Replaceable] readonly attribute WindowProxy? parent;
  readonly attribute Element? frameElement;
  WindowProxy? open(optional USVString url = "about:blank", optional DOMString target = "_blank", optional [TreatNullAs=EmptyString] DOMString features = "");
  getter object (DOMString name);
  // Since this is the global object, the IDL named getter adds a NamedPropertiesObject exotic
  // object on the prototype chain. Indeed, this does not make the global object an exotic object.
  // Indexed access is taken care of by the WindowProxy exotic object.
  // the user agent
  readonly attribute Navigator navigator; 
  readonly attribute ApplicationCache applicationCache;
  // user prompts
  void alert();
  void alert(DOMString message);
  boolean confirm(optional DOMString message = "");
  DOMString? prompt(optional DOMString message = "", optional DOMString default = "");
  void print();
  unsigned long requestAnimationFrame(FrameRequestCallback callback);
  void cancelAnimationFrame(unsigned long handle);
  void postMessage(any message, USVString targetOrigin, optional sequence<object> transfer = []);
};
Window includes GlobalEventHandlers;
Window includes WindowEventHandlers;
callback 
FrameRequestCallback
 = void (

DOMHighResTimeStamp
 time);

window . window

window . frames

window . self

These attributes all return window .

window . document

Returns the Document associated with window .

document . defaultView

Returns the Window object of the active document .

The Window has an associated Document , which is a Document object. It is set when the Window object is created, and only ever changed during navigation from the initial about:blank Document .

The window , frames , and self IDL attributes, on getting, must all return this Window object's browsing context 's WindowProxy object.

The document IDL attribute, on getting, must return this Window object's associated Document .

The Document object associated with a Window object can change in exactly one case: when the navigate algorithm initializes a new Document object for the first page loaded in a browsing context . In that specific case, the Window object of the original about:blank page is reused and gets a new Document object.

The defaultView IDL attribute of the Document interface, on getting, must return this Document 's browsing context 's WindowProxy object, if this Document has an associated browsing context, or null otherwise.

For historical reasons, Window objects must also have a writable, configurable, non-enumerable property named HTMLDocument whose value is the Document interface object .

7.3.1 APIs for creating and navigating browsing contexts by name

window = window . open ( [ url [, target [, features ] ] ] )

Opens a window to show url (defaults to about:blank ), and returns it. The target argument gives the name of the new window. If a window exists with that name already, it is reused. The features argument can be used to influence the rendering of the new window.

window . name [ = value ]

Returns the name of the window.

Can be set, to change the name.

window . close ()

Closes the window.

window . closed

Returns true if the window has been closed, false otherwise.

window . stop ()

Cancels the document load.

The window open steps , given a string url , a string target , and a string features , are as follows:

1. If the event loop 's termination nesting level is nonzero, return null.

2. Let entry settings be the entry settings object .

3. Let source browsing context be the responsible browsing context specified by entry settings .

4. If target is the empty string, then set target to " _blank ".

5. Let tokenizedFeatures be the result of tokenizing features .

6. Let noopener be true if tokenizedFeatures contains an entry with the key " noopener "

7. Let target browsing context and new be the result of applying the rules for choosing a browsing context given target , source browsing context , and noopener .

   If there is a user agent that supports control-clicking a link to open it in a new tab, and the user control-clicks on an element whose onclick handler uses the window.open() API to open a page in an iframe element, the user agent could override the selection of the target browsing context to instead target a new tab.

8. If target browsing context is null, then return null.

9. If new is true, then set up browsing context features for target browsing context given tokenizedFeatures . [CSSOMVIEW]

10. Let resource be the URL " about:blank ".

11. If url is not the empty string or new is true, then:

    1. If url is not the empty string, then parse url relative to entry settings , and set resource to the resulting URL record , if any. If the parse a URL algorithm failed, then throw a " SyntaxError " DOMException .

    2. If resource is " about:blank " and new is true, then queue a task to fire an event named load at target browsing context 's Window object, with the legacy target override flag set.

    3. Otherwise, navigate target browsing context to resource , with the exceptions enabled flag set. If new is true, then replacement must be enabled . The source browsing context is source browsing context . Rethrow any exceptions.

12. If noopener is true, then disown target browsing context and return null.

13. Return target browsing context 's WindowProxy object.

The open( url , target , features ) method on Window objects provides a mechanism for navigating an existing browsing context or opening and navigating an auxiliary browsing context .

When the method is invoked, the user agent must run the window open steps with url , target , and features .

To tokenize the features argument :

1. Let tokenizedFeatures be a new ordered map .

2. Let position point at the first code point of features .

3. While position is not past the end of features :

   1. Let name be the empty string.

   2. Let value be the empty string.

   3. Collect a sequence of code points that are feature separators from features given position . This skips past leading separators before the name.

   4. Collect a sequence of code points that are not feature separators from features given position . Set name to the collected characters, converted to ASCII lowercase .

   5. Set name to the result of normalizing the feature name name .

   6. While position is not past the end of features and the code point at position in features is not U+003D (=):

      1. If the code point at position in features is U+002C (,), or if it is not a feature separator , then break .

      2. Advance position by 1.

      This skips to the first U+003D (=) but does not skip past a U+002C (,) or a non-separator.

   7. If the code point at position in features is a feature separator :

      1. While position is not past the end of features and the code point at position in features is a feature separator :

         1. If the code point at position in features is U+002C (,), then break .

         2. Advance position by 1.

         This skips to the first non-separator but does not skip past a U+002C (,).

      2. Collect a sequence of code points that are not feature separators code points from features given position . Set value to the collected code points, converted to ASCII lowercase .

   8. If name is not the empty string, then set tokenizedFeatures [ name ] to value .

4. Return tokenizedFeatures .

A code point is a feature separator if it is ASCII whitespace , U+003D (=), or U+002C (,).

For legacy reasons, there are some aliases of some feature names. To normalize a feature name name , switch on name :

" screenx "

Return " left ".

" screeny "

Return " top ".

" innerwidth "

Return " width ".

" innerheight "

Return " height ".

Anything else

Return name .

The name attribute of the Window object must, on getting, return the current name of the browsing context ; and, on setting, set the name of the browsing context to the new value.

The name gets reset when the browsing context is navigated to another origin .

The close() method on Window objects should, if all the following conditions are met, close the browsing context A :

• The corresponding browsing context A is script-closable .
• The responsible browsing context specified by the incumbent settings object is familiar with the browsing context A .
• The responsible browsing context specified by the incumbent settings object is allowed to navigate the browsing context A .

A browsing context is script-closable if it is an auxiliary browsing context that was created by a script (as opposed to by an action of the user), or if it is a top-level browsing context whose session history contains only one Document .

The closed attribute on Window objects must return true if the Window object's browsing context has been discarded , and false otherwise.

The stop() method on Window objects should, if there is an existing attempt to navigate the browsing context and that attempt is not currently running the unload a document algorithm, cancel that navigation ; then, it must abort the active document of the browsing context of the Window object on which it was invoked.

7.3.2 Accessing other browsing contexts

window . length

Returns the number of document-tree child browsing contexts .

window [ index ]

Returns the indicated document-tree child browsing context .

The number of document-tree child browsing contexts of a Window object W is the number of document-tree child browsing contexts of W 's associated Document 's browsing context .

The length IDL attribute's getter must return the number of document-tree child browsing contexts of this Window object.

Indexed access to document-tree child browsing contexts is defined through the [[GetOwnProperty]] internal method of the WindowProxy object.

7.3.3 Named access on the Window object

window [ name ]

Returns the indicated element or collection of elements.

As a general rule, relying on this will lead to brittle code. Which IDs end up mapping to this API can vary over time, as new features are added to the Web platform, for example. Instead of this, use document.getElementById() or document.querySelector() .

The document-tree child browsing context name property set of a Window object window is the return value of running these steps:

1. Let activeDocument be window 's browsing context 's active document .

2. Let childBrowsingContexts be all document-tree child browsing contexts of activeDocument 's browsing context whose browsing context name is not the empty string, in order, and including only the first document-tree child browsing context with a given name if multiple document-tree child browsing contexts have the same one.

3. Remove each browsing context from childBrowsingContexts whose active document 's origin is not same origin with activeDocument 's origin and whose browsing context name does not match the name of its browsing context container 's name content attribute value.

4. Return the browsing context names of childBrowsingContexts , in the same order.

<iframe src=https://elsewhere.example.com/></iframe>
<iframe name=spices></iframe>

The Window object supports named properties . The supported property names of a Window object window at any moment consist of the following, in tree order according to the element that contributed them, ignoring later duplicates:

• window 's document-tree child browsing context name property set ;

• the value of the name content attribute for all embed , form , frameset , img , and object elements that have a non-empty name content attribute and are in a document tree with window 's browsing context 's active document as their root ; and

• the value of the id content attribute for all HTML elements that have a non-empty id content attribute and are in a document tree with window 's browsing context 's active document as their root .

To determine the value of a named property name in a Window , the user agent must return the value obtained using the following steps:

1. Let objects be the list of named objects with the name name .

   There will be at least one such object, by definition.

2. If objects contains a nested browsing context , then return the WindowProxy object of the nested browsing context corresponding to the first browsing context container in tree order whose nested browsing context is in objects .

3. Otherwise, if objects has only one element, return that element.

4. Otherwise return an HTMLCollection rooted at the Document node, whose filter matches only named objects with the name name . (By definition, these will all be elements.)

Named objects with the name name , for the purposes of the above algorithm, consist of the following:

• document-tree child browsing contexts of the active document whose name is name ;

• embed , form , frameset , img , or object elements that have a name content attribute whose value is name and are in a document tree with the active document as their root ; and

• HTML elements that have an id content attribute whose value is name and are in a document tree with the active document as their root .

7.3.4 Garbage collection and browsing contexts

A browsing context has a strong reference to each of its Document s and its WindowProxy object, and the user agent itself has a strong reference to its top-level browsing contexts .

A Document has a strong reference to its Window object.

A Window object has a strong reference to its Document object through its document attribute. Thus, references from other scripts to either of those objects will keep both alive. Similarly, both Document and Window objects have implied strong references to the WindowProxy object.

Each script has a strong reference to its settings object , and each environment settings object has strong references to its global object , responsible browsing context , and responsible document (if any).

To discard a Document document :

1. Set document 's salvageable state to false.

2. Run any unloading document cleanup steps for document that are defined by this specification and other applicable specifications .

3. Abort document .

4. Remove any tasks associated with document in any task source , without running those tasks.

5. Discard all the child browsing contexts of document .

6. Lose the strong reference from document 's browsing context to document .

7. Remove document from the owner set of each WorkerGlobalScope object whose set contains document .

When a browsing context is discarded , the strong reference from the user agent itself to the browsing context must be severed, and all the Document objects for all the entries in the browsing context 's session history must be discarded as well.

User agents may discard top-level browsing contexts at any time (typically, in response to user requests, e.g. when a user force-closes a window containing one or more top-level browsing contexts ). Other browsing contexts must be discarded once their WindowProxy object is eligible for garbage collection, in addition to the other places where this specification requires them to be discarded.

A WindowProxy does not have a strong reference to the browsing context it was created alongside. In particular, it is possible for a nested browsing context to be discarded even if JavaScript code holds a reference to its WindowProxy object.

7.3.5 Closing browsing contexts

To close a browsing context browsingContext , run these steps:

1. Prompt to unload browsingContext 's active document . If the user refused to allow the document to be unloaded , then return.

2. Unload browsingContext 's active document .

3. Remove browsingContext from the user interface (e.g., close or hide its tab in a tabbed browser).

4. Discard browsingContext .

User agents should offer users the ability to arbitrarily close any top-level browsing context .

7.3.6 Browser interface elements

To allow Web pages to integrate with Web browsers, certain Web browser interface elements are exposed in a limited way to scripts in Web pages.

Each interface element is represented by a BarProp object:

[Exposed=Window]
interface BarProp {
  readonly attribute boolean visible;
};

window . locationbar . visible

Returns true if the location bar is visible; otherwise, returns false.

window . menubar . visible

Returns true if the menu bar is visible; otherwise, returns false.

window . personalbar . visible

Returns true if the personal bar is visible; otherwise, returns false.

window . scrollbars . visible

Returns true if the scroll bars are visible; otherwise, returns false.

window . statusbar . visible

Returns true if the status bar is visible; otherwise, returns false.

window . toolbar . visible

Returns true if the toolbar is visible; otherwise, returns false.

The visible attribute, on getting, must return either true or a value determined by the user agent to most accurately represent the visibility state of the user interface element that the object represents, as described below.

The following BarProp objects exist for each Document object in a browsing context . Some of the user interface elements represented by these objects might have no equivalent in some user agents; for those user agents, except when otherwise specified, the object must act as if it was present and visible (i.e. its visible attribute must return true).

The location bar BarProp object

Represents the user interface element that contains a control that displays the URL of the active document , or some similar interface concept.

The menu bar BarProp object

Represents the user interface element that contains a list of commands in menu form, or some similar interface concept.

The personal bar BarProp object

Represents the user interface element that contains links to the user's favorite pages, or some similar interface concept.

The scrollbar BarProp object

Represents the user interface element that contains a scrolling mechanism, or some similar interface concept.

The status bar BarProp object

Represents a user interface element found immediately below or after the document, as appropriate for the user's media, which typically provides information about ongoing network activity or information about elements that the user's pointing device is current indicating. If the user agent has no such user interface element, then the object may act as if the corresponding user interface element was absent (i.e. its visible attribute may return false).

The toolbar BarProp object

Represents the user interface element found immediately above or before the document, as appropriate for the user's media, which typically provides session history traversal controls (back and forward buttons, reload buttons, etc). If the user agent has no such user interface element, then the object may act as if the corresponding user interface element was absent (i.e. its visible attribute may return false).

The locationbar attribute must return the location bar BarProp object .

The menubar attribute must return the menu bar BarProp object .

The personalbar attribute must return the personal bar BarProp object .

The scrollbars attribute must return the scrollbar BarProp object .

The statusbar attribute must return the status bar BarProp object .

The toolbar attribute must return the toolbar BarProp object .

For historical reasons, the status attribute on the Window object must, on getting, return the last string it was set to, and on setting, must set itself to the new value. When the Window object is created, the attribute must be set to the empty string. It does not do anything else.

7.3.7 Script settings for Window objects

When the user agent is required to set up a window environment settings object , given a JavaScript execution context execution context and an optional environment reserved environment , it must run the following steps:

1. Let realm be the value of execution context 's Realm component.

2. Let window be realm 's global object .

3. Let url be a copy of the URL of window 's associated Document .

4. Let settings object be a new environment settings object whose algorithms are defined as follows:

   The realm execution context

   Return execution context .

   The module map

   Return the module map of window 's associated Document .

   The responsible browsing context

   Return the browsing context with which window is associated.

   The responsible event loop

   Return the event loop that is associated with the unit of related similar-origin browsing contexts to which window 's browsing context belongs.

   The responsible document

   Return window 's associated Document .

   The API URL character encoding

   Return the current character encoding of window 's associated Document .

   The API base URL

   Return the current base URL of window 's associated Document .

   The origin

   Return the origin of window 's associated Document .

   The HTTPS state

   Return the HTTPS state of window 's associated Document .

   The referrer policy

   1. Let document be the Document with which window is currently associated.

   2. While document is an iframe srcdoc document and document 's referrer policy is the empty string, set document to document 's browsing context 's browsing context container 's node document .

   3. Return document 's referrer policy .

5. If reserved environment is given, then:

   1. Set settings object 's id to reserved environment 's id , settings object 's creation URL to reserved environment 's creation URL , settings object 's target browsing context to reserved environment 's target browsing context , and settings object 's active service worker to reserved environment 's active service worker .

   2. Set reserved environment 's id to the empty string.

      The identity of the reserved environment is considered to be fully transferred to the created environment settings object . The reserved environment is not searchable by the environment ’s id from this point on.

6. Otherwise, set settings object 's id to a new unique opaque string, settings object 's creation URL to url , settings object 's target browsing context to null, and settings object 's active service worker to null.

7. Set realm 's [[HostDefined]] field to settings object .

8. Return settings object .

7.4 The WindowProxy exotic object

A WindowProxy is an exotic object that wraps a Window ordinary object, indirecting most operations through to the wrapped object. Each browsing context has an associated WindowProxy object. When the browsing context is navigated , the Window object wrapped by the browsing context 's associated WindowProxy object is changed.

There is no WindowProxy interface object .

Every WindowProxy object has a [[Window]] internal slot representing the wrapped Window object.

The WindowProxy object internal methods are described in the subsections below.

Although WindowProxy is named as a "proxy", it does not do polymorphic dispatch on its target's internal methods as a real proxy would, due to a desire to reuse machinery between WindowProxy and Location objects. As long as the Window object remains an ordinary object this is unobservable and can be implemented either way.

7.4.1 [[GetPrototypeOf]] ( )

1. Let W be the value of the [[Window]] internal slot of this .

2. If ! IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( W ) is true, then return ! OrdinaryGetPrototypeOf ( W ).

3. Return null.

7.4.2 [[SetPrototypeOf]] ( V )

1. Return ! SetImmutablePrototype ( this , V ).

7.4.3 [[IsExtensible]] ( )

1. Return true.

7.4.4 [[PreventExtensions]] ( )

1. Return false.

7.4.5 [[GetOwnProperty]] ( P )

1. Let W be the value of the [[Window]] internal slot of this .

2. If P is an array index property name , then:

   1. Let index be ! ToUint32 ( P ).

   2. Let maxProperties be the number of document-tree child browsing contexts of W .

   3. Let value be undefined.

   4. If maxProperties is greater than 0 and index is less than maxProperties , then:

      1. Let document be W 's associated Document .

      2. Set value to the WindowProxy object of the index th document-tree child browsing context of document 's browsing context , sorted in the order that their browsing context container elements were most recently inserted into document , the WindowProxy object of the most recently inserted browsing context container 's nested browsing context being last.

   5. If value is undefined, then return undefined.

   6. Return PropertyDescriptor { [[Value]]: value , [[Writable]]: false, [[Enumerable]]: true, [[Configurable]]: true }.

3. If ! IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( W ) is true, then return ! OrdinaryGetOwnProperty ( W , P ).

   This is a willful violation of the JavaScript specification's invariants of the essential internal methods to maintain compatibility with existing Web content. See tc39/ecma262 issue #672 for more information. [JAVASCRIPT]

4. Let property be ! CrossOriginGetOwnPropertyHelper ( W , P ).

5. If property is not undefined, then return property .

6. If property is undefined and P is in W 's document-tree child browsing context name property set , then:

   1. Let value be the WindowProxy object of the named object with the name P .

   2. Return PropertyDescriptor { [[Value]]: value , [[Enumerable]]: false, [[Writable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true }.

      The reason the property descriptors are non-enumerable, despite this mismatching the same-origin behavior, is for compatibility with existing Web content. See issue #3183 for details.

7. Throw a " SecurityError " DOMException .

7.4.6 [[DefineOwnProperty]] ( P , Desc )

1. Let W be the value of the [[Window]] internal slot of this .

2. If ! IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( W ) is true, then:

   1. If P is an array index property name , return false.

   2. Return ? OrdinaryDefineOwnProperty ( W , P , Desc ).

      This is a willful violation of the JavaScript specification's invariants of the essential internal methods to maintain compatibility with existing Web content. See tc39/ecma262 issue #672 for more information. [JAVASCRIPT]

3. Throw a " SecurityError " DOMException .

7.4.7 [[Get]] ( P , Receiver )

1. Let W be the value of the [[Window]] internal slot of this .

2. If ! IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( W ) is true, then return ? OrdinaryGet ( this , P , Receiver ).

3. Return ? CrossOriginGet ( this , P , Receiver ).

7.4.8 [[Set]] ( P , V , Receiver )

1. Let W be the value of the [[Window]] internal slot of this .

2. If ! IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( W ) is true, then return ? OrdinarySet ( W , this , Receiver ).

3. Return ? CrossOriginSet ( this , P , V , Receiver ).

7.4.9 [[Delete]] ( P )

1. Let W be the value of the [[Window]] internal slot of this .

2. If ! IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( W ) is true, then:

   1. If P is an array index property name , then:

      1. Let desc be ! this .[[GetOwnProperty]]( P ).

      2. If desc is undefined, then return true.

      3. Return false.

   2. Return ? OrdinaryDelete ( W , P ).

3. Throw a " SecurityError " DOMException .

7.4.10 [[OwnPropertyKeys]] ( )

1. Let W be the value of the [[Window]] internal slot of this .

2. Let keys be a new empty List .

3. Let maxProperties be the number of document-tree child browsing contexts of W .

4. Let index be 0.

5. Repeat while index < maxProperties ,

   1. Add ! ToString ( index ) as the last element of keys .

   2. Increment index by 1.

6. If ! IsPlatformObjectSameOrigin ( W ) is true, then return the concatenation of keys and ! OrdinaryOwnPropertyKeys ( W ).

7. Return the concatenation of keys and ! CrossOriginOwnPropertyKeys ( W ).