Open a new tab in the background

Question

Using javascript  I want to open a new page in a different tab  but remain focused on the current tab  I know I can do it like this   open  http   example com     focus      However  when I do this in chrome  it flashes the new tab for a moment before switching back to the current tab  I want to avoid this   The application is a personal bookmarklet  so it only has to work in the latest Chrome

User · Answer

I did exactly what you re looking for in a very simple way  It is perfectly smooth in Google Chrome and Opera  and almost perfect in Firefox and Safari  Not tested in IE     function newTab url        var tab window open          tab document write   lt  DOCTYPE html gt  lt html gt   document getElementsByTagName  html   0  innerHTML   lt  html gt         tab document close        window location href url      Fiddle   http   jsfiddle net tFCnA show   Explanations  Let s say there is windows A1 and B1 and websites A2 and B2  Instead of opening B2 in B1 and then return to A1  I open B2 in A1 and re-open A2 in B1   Another thing that makes it work is that I don t make the user re-download A2  see line 4     The only thing you may doesn t like is that the new tab opens before the main page

User · Answer

THX for this question  Works good for me on all popular browsers   function openNewBackgroundTab        var a   document createElement  a        a href   window location pathname      var evt   document createEvent  MouseEvents          the tenth parameter of initMouseEvent sets ctrl key     evt initMouseEvent  click   true  true  window  0  0  0  0  0                                  true  false  false  false  0  null       a dispatchEvent evt      var is chrome   navigator userAgent toLowerCase   indexOf  chrome    gt  -1  if  is chrome        var url   window location pathname      var win   window open url    blank      else       openNewBackgroundTab

User · Answer

UPDATE  By version 41 of Google Chrome  initMouseEvent seemed to have a changed behavior    this can be done by simulating ctrl   click  or any other key event combinations that open a background tab  on a dynamically generated a element with its href attribute set to the desired url  In action  fiddle  function openNewBackgroundTab        var a   document createElement  a        a href    http   www google com        var evt   document createEvent  MouseEvents          the tenth parameter of initMouseEvent sets ctrl key     evt initMouseEvent  click   true  true  window  0  0  0  0  0                                  true  false  false  false  0  null       a dispatchEvent evt       tested only on chrome

User · Answer

Here is a complete example for navigating valid URL on a new tab with focused   HTML    lt div class  panel  gt     lt p gt      Enter Url        lt input type  text  id  txturl  name  txturl  size  30  class  weburl    gt       amp nbsp  amp nbsp           lt input type  button  id  btnopen   value  Open Url in New Tab  onclick  openURL      gt     lt  p gt   lt  div gt    CSS    panel    font-size 14px     panel input    border 1px solid  333      JAVASCRIPT   function isValidURL url        var RegExp     ftp http https        w   0 1  w      S     0-9             w        amp     -              if  RegExp test url             return true        else           return false           function openURL         var url   document getElementById  txturl   value trim        if  isValidURL url             var myWindow   window open url    blank            myWindow focus            document getElementById  txturl   value             else           alert  Please enter valid URL               return false            I have also created a bin with the solution on http   codebins com codes home 4ldqpbw

User · Answer

As far as I remember  this is controlled by browser settings  In other words  user can chose whether they would like to open new tab in the background or foreground  Also they can chose whether new popup should open in new tab or just    popup    For example in firefox preferences      Notice the last option

[javascript] Open a new tab in the background?

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