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Do any Ad & Pop-up Blockers also block JavaScript pop-ups by hyperlink?

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by legitorg

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Does anybody know of problems with the currently popular ad & pop-up "Blockers" also blocking (or prompting user permission) JavaScript pop-up-new-window-for-content that are launched by hyperlink, therefore are by the users request.

In other words, from what I can tell, most "blockers" block automatic pop-up, that are usually advertisements, but still allow hyperlinks to new Windows. I have a client that I suggested pop-up windows for video and other small content, but they are concerned about the popularity of these "blockers"

Anyone?

Thanks,
Michael

14 replies

by fat chink

I have seen (and tested) many blockers. Some do too little, some too much. Several are configurable, in which case it's just a matter of getting the right settings for that program to allow hyperlinked popups, but not unwanted popups.

by fredfr

Can you give us an insight as to what blockers you tested and where in the scale of "too little" to "too much" they sit?

Thankx,
fredfr

by dgibson.net

Because of the variety of ways popups are handled by different software, it's best to just get used to not using them in legitimate applications. Also realize that you cannot count on users to adjust settings in the more customizable popup blockers to specifically meet the needs of your site.

There's code to detect if a window was popped up or not and present an alternative, but that's not even fool proof. One popup blocker I used aged ago actually let the popup open but then shut it down if it was recognized as a black-list popup/site. Another worst-case is Opera6. Opera6 (if you enabled popup blocking) would basically cancel any javascript it was running as soon as it encountered a window.open()! This entirely defeats any chance of popup detection much less error catching. If there was a valid HREF on a link clicked, it would follow that as if the javascript was not even there.

So the best advice is to just get used to coding for no popup support.

by irongut

The Mozilla and Netscape browsers block unrequested pop-ups. This means they block pop-ups that are caused by any method other than clicking on a hyperlink. They also allow you to set a list of sites that are excluded from this behaviour and always show pop-ups.

I think this kind of behaviour is typical of most pop-up blockers.

However I would advise your client against using pop-up windows. They are annoying at the best of times and often users will close them before the content loads, assuming them to be adverts.

by dgibson.net

Because of the variety of ways popups are handled by different software, it's best to just get used to not using them in legitimate applications. Also realize that you cannot count on users to adjust settings in the more customizable popup blockers to specifically meet the needs of your site.

There's code to detect if a window was popped up or not and present an alternative, but that's not even fool proof. One popup blocker I used aged ago actually let the popup open but then shut it down if it was recognized as a black-list popup/site. Another worst-case is Opera6. Opera6 (if you enabled popup blocking) would basically cancel any javascript it was running as soon as it encountered a window.open()! This entirely defeats any chance of popup detection much less error catching. If there was a valid HREF on a link clicked, it would follow that as if the javascript was not even there.

So the best advice is to just get used to coding for no popup support.

by fuzzyduc

I haven't tested it, but would the recommended approach to cross-browser/-platform pop-up windows work? (i.e. coding for people with downlevel browsers or Javascript disabled for security reasons) As professional programmers, we should be doing this already, but it could easily help solve other problems, such as pop-up blockers.

Something along the lines of :

My Link

If JS is blocked, then the href attribute is followed; I'm guessing (and hoping!) that if pop-ups are blocked then maybe the href will also be followed, spawning in the new window as dictated by the target="_blank" attribute.

by cls

I tried using a hyperlink pop-up method to show enlarged view in my portfolio and here's what I got:

Panicware Pop-Up Stopper-Did not block it.

Netscape 7.1- Blocked it and shows a little tiny icon in the bottom of the browser to let the user know a pop-up has been blocked. So it's up to the user to know that the feature is there and decide to turn it off for your site. Otherwise it might appear that the hyperlink is just not working.

IE 6.0- did not block it.

Christina

by ed woychowsky

I haven't tried, but it may be possible to get around the pop-up blockers using either IFrames or Layers.

by soundsolutionsinc

I use the Google Blocker and find it very effective. But it also does block Java windows from popping up internally. We use the Magic software from Network Associates and run into issues there. I do recall some other programs that I've run into that use Java and are blocked by Google.

by dave

Google toobar 2.0 also traps the window's unload event also. If you have custom code which manages windows and you try to perform, say, clean up on window.unload - the Google toolbar will block such code!

by theburbs

The plan and simple answer is, "Yes", most pop-up stoppers also block legitimate JavaScript pop-ups. I have tried Panicware Pop-Up Stopper and 12Ghosts Pop-Up Killer, among others, for my personal use. And the blockers generally all do exactly what they are designed to do - block annoying popups.

As a developer, I also toggle "Allow Script Debugging" and can see the benefit/hazards of such features. A script that expects to be able to communicate with a pop-up will fail - I often use pop-ups in our web-based applications.

But at the same time, the blockers get rid of the gratuitous adverts that major sites such as Yahoo!, MSN, CBSSportsLine and a host of others use to plug a push a paying advertiser's message to an unsuspecting visitor.

Despite the hazards within my own work of developing apps with pop-ups, I wouldn't do without a blocker. However, a smarter blocker, one that could be tuned, would be a great benefit....

by maj

I use Google pop blocker and some applications produce a statement / request to give blockers permission to launch. Works very well.

mj

by greg_k

There is a workaround to the popup-blocker situation. (At least, this has worked with the popup blockers I've tested.) If you have a link that needs to open a popup window by hyperlink, use the "target" attribute of the element; that is, . Then, in the window that opens, use javascript to resize the window to the size you need. Unfortunately, this leaves the menu bar, tool bars, etc., on the window, but the popup window will still appear.

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