# Anybody know a prototype helper that creates a popup window? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [June 16, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anybody-know-a-prototype-helper-that-creates-a-popup-window/140548 "2008-06-16T04:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ron)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 4:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anybody-know-a-prototype-helper-that-creates-a-popup-window/140548/1 "2008-06-16T04:26:55Z")
Hi, I’m trying to get a form to open up in a new window. I know how to toggle divs but haven’t been able to find anything on how to get another window to open…any ideas? Ron ---
**Author:** ![ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ron)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anybody-know-a-prototype-helper-that-creates-a-popup-window/140548/2 "2008-06-16T04:37:26Z")
So I realized after I posted this that thre is a :popup option in link\_to. but for some reason when I add it to my links, it just loads a full page, not a popup. I’ve included javascript on my layouts…I heard somewhere that there is a prototype window–something different from a pop up window. Anybody know anything about that type of window? Ron ---
**Author:** ![ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ron)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 9:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anybody-know-a-prototype-helper-that-creates-a-popup-window/140548/3 "2008-06-16T09:59:30Z")
On Jun 16, 3:37 am, Ron [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > So I realized after I posted this that thre is a :popup option in > link\_to. but for some reason when I add it to my links, it just loads > a full page, not a popup. I’ve included javascript on my layouts…I > heard somewhere that there is a prototype window–something different > from a pop up window. Anybody know anything about that type of > window? window.open(url, …) I suspect that when people mean prototype window they actually mean a chunk of html that has been styled to look like a window within the window (and normally scripted so that you can move it around, resize it etc…) Fred ---
**Author:** ![ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ron)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anybody-know-a-prototype-helper-that-creates-a-popup-window/140548/4 "2008-06-17T19:35:30Z")
Hi Fred, So I guess I’m not sure what the syntax would be? \<%=link\_to\_remote ‘Link’, "window.open(?)%\> ? On Jun 16, 12:59 am, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ron)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2008, 9:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anybody-know-a-prototype-helper-that-creates-a-popup-window/140548/5 "2008-06-17T21:43:33Z")
On 17 Jun 2008, at 18:34, Ron wrote: > Hi Fred, > > So I guess I’m not sure what the syntax would be? > \<%=link\_to\_remote ‘Link’, "window.open(?)%\> > ? Nope, what you want is link\_to\_function (which is just fancy pants for Fred ---
**Author:** ![ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/ecae2f/32.png) [@ron](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ron)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anybody-know-a-prototype-helper-that-creates-a-popup-window/140548/6 "2008-06-19T19:14:28Z")
Okay Fred…that makes more sense. That’s really helpful. Thanks, as always. As for the Prototype windows, I’ve managed to get a nice window to open using Prototype Window. Its a really nice library that tacks on to Prototype the ability to generate Prototype-based windows. Its here: [http://prototype-window.xilinus.com/index.html](http://prototype-window.xilinus.com/index.html) I included a couple of Javascript files in my javascript folder and then defined a javascript variable in my view: win = new Window({className: “mac\_os\_x”, title: “Sample”, width:200, height:150, destroyOnClose: true, recenterAuto:false}); win.getContent().update(“ # Hello world !! ”); Then I passed win.showCenter(); to a link\_to\_function tag: \<%=link\_to\_function ‘Add Paper,’ “win.showCenter();”%\> Voila! (This code, btw, is from the sample on Prototype Window’s site). There are several themes that you can use; I had to copy the stylesheet to the public/stylesheets directory along with a directory of image files for the particular theme. I’m going to customize the theme for my app; however, I was just trying to get started. The only thing I’m not sure about here–maybe someone else knows–is how to pass a Rails generated URL to the Window. Right now, I can only get it to show a div on the page or HTML I provide to it. But there is a getURL method that accepts a string argument that I’d like to use. When I try and put a link tag helper in, however, the script doesn’t work. I’m thinking maybe if I used RESTful routes, the path would be a string variable (if I’m not mistaken)–making it perhaps acceptable as an argument. Any ideas? I mean, for this to work, its pretty important to be able to show windows that have views in the Rails App. I’ve got to figure out how to get this going somehow. Ron On Jun 17, 12:43 pm, Frederick C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)