Opening a Page in a New Browser Window

The best way to launch a new browser window when clicking a button is to use a GEN:Hyperlink tag, which can be made to look like a button using standard HTML.
- Alan Fisher, Chairman of Iron Speed, Inc.

February 7, 2006
Iron Speed Designer V3.2

GEN:Hyperlink tags

The best way to launch a new browser window when clicking a button is to use a GEN:Hyperlink tag, which can be made to look like a button using standard HTML. (Use one of the button template files, such as Button.html, for guidance. Once you copy those files, you can change them to use GEN:Hyperlink and use these copied files where you want to open a new window.)

Using GEN:Hyperlink, set the Target Window property to open a new window.

Tag Property Setting

Code Generation Tag MyHyperlinkTag

Target Window _blank

GEN:Button tags

The GEN:Button tags, and their subsidiary tags such as GEN:LinkButton, GEN:ImageButton and GEN:PushButton, produce an action that requires a postback because some buttons, such as "OK", are used to validate and update the database. As such, they do not support redirecting the target to another window. Some of these buttons produce an <a href ...> HTML tag, but their OnClick action is set to a Javascript function to validate data if required.

GEN:FieldValue tags

GEN:FieldValue tags can be easily made to open a browser in a new window when clicked. The following example uses a FieldValue tag to open an Edit Record page in a new browser.

Step 1: Add a FieldValue tag to your layout page.

Step 2: Set the Page Properties for the tag:

Tag Property Setting

Code Generation Tag EditPopup

Display Style Literal

Table Categories

Field CategoryID

Step 3: Set the pass-through attribute for the tag to generate an <a href> HTML tag. This is also done from the tag’s Properties dialog.

Step 4: Build and run your application.

About the Author

Alan S. Fisher
Co-Founder and Chairman of Iron Speed, Inc.

Mr. Fisher was a General Partner at Outlook Ventures, Inc., a venture capital company prior to co-founding Iron Speed, Inc. He co-founded Onsale, Inc. (now Egghead.com) and was its Chief Technology Officer from July 1994 to December 1999. He also Co-founded and was President of Software Partners, Inc, a developer and publisher of software products from August 1988 to July 1994. From April 1984 to August 1988, Mr. Fisher served as Technical Marketing Manager and Product Development Manager for Teknowledge, Inc., a developer of artificial intelligence software products. From June 1981 to April 1984, he served as a member of the technical staff for AT&T Bell Laboratories. Mr. Fisher serves on the Board of Directors of Infodata Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:INFD) an e-business consulting services company; He formerly served on the board of a number of companies including Onsale, Inc. (later Egghead.com and now Amazon.com), and FatBrain, Inc. an Internet retailer of technical and professional books.

Mr. Fisher received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri and received his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.



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