Question

30

Open a new tab in the background?

rated 0 times [ 35] [ 5] / answers: 1 / hits: 131162 / 12 Years ago, wed, may 30, 2012, 12:00:00

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.

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asalewisc

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4 Years ago

answered 12 Years ago jarod · Accepted Answer

UPDATE: By version 41 of Google Chrome, initMouseEvent seemed to have a changed behavior, and so this answer no longer works. Thanks to @Daniel Andersson for his comment.

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