Using JQuery to open a popup window and print
- by TJ Kirchner
Hello,
A while back I created a lightbox plugin using jQuery that would load a url specified in a link into a lightbox. The code is really simple:
$('.readmore').each(function(i){
$(this).popup();
});
and the link would look like this:
<a class='readmore' href='view-details.php?Id=11'>TJ Kirchner</a>
The plugin could also accept arguments for width, height, a different url, and more data to pass through.
The problem I'm facing right now is printing the lightbox. I set it up so that the lightbox has a print button at the top of the box. That link would open up a new window and print that window. This is all being controlled by the lightbox plugin. Here's what that code looks like:
$('.printBtn').bind('click',function() {
var url = options.url + ( ( options.url.indexOf('?') < 0 && options.data != "" ) ? '?' : '&' ) + options.data;
var thePopup = window.open( url, "Member Listing", "menubar=0,location=0,height=700,width=700" );
thePopup.print();
});
The problem is the script doesn't seem to be waiting until the window loads. It wants to print the moment the window appears. As a result, if I click "cancel" to the print dialog box, it'll popup again and again until the window loads. The first time I tried printing I got a blank page. That might be because the window didn't finish load.
I need to find a way to alter the previous code block to wait until the window loads and then print. I feel like there should be an easy way to do this, but I haven't found it yet. Either that, or I need to find a better way to open a popup window and print from the lightbox script in the parent window, without alternating the webpage code in the popup window.
