Interesting Situation - Need Modeless Window Help

[AdamMorris]

I have a very interesting problem and can't seem to figure it out.

Basically I'm trying to make a Training Assistant: a window that will
guide the user through the setup process of an online app. However, I
only have the ability to edit the front page of the system.

I need to create a "Train Me!" button on the homepage that will open a
modeless window. Easy enough, right? Well I need the modeless window
to STAY there even after the user starts clicking around on links and
navigating to other pages.

To complicate matters, since I can't edit the other pages, I can't
pass the modeless window any info on what page the user has navigated
to. I need the training assistant to know what page they clicked on
so it can help them with that.

And finally, I can't put the app in any kind of frameset because it
breaks for some reason.

Any help would be extremely appreciated!!

 

[David Mark]

I have a very interesting problem and can't seem to figure it out.

Basically I'm trying to make a Training Assistant: a window that will
guide the user through the setup process of an online app. However, I
only have the ability to edit the front page of the system.

I need to create a "Train Me!" button on the homepage that will open a
modeless window. Easy enough, right? Well I need the modeless window
to STAY there even after the user starts clicking around on links and
navigating to other pages.

Why wouldn't it stay? Do you mean you want it always on top? You
can't do that. A couple of browsers used to allow this, but
thankfully the developers changed their minds at some point.

To complicate matters, since I can't edit the other pages, I can't
pass the modeless window any info on what page the user has navigated
to. I need the training assistant to know what page they clicked on
so it can help them with that.

You are out of luck unless you want to constantly poll the opener for
location changes. You could use setInterval to do that, assuming both
pages are from the same domain.

 

[AdamMorris]

Why wouldn't it stay? Do you mean you want it always on top? You

can't do that. A couple of browsers used to allow this, but
thankfully the developers changed their minds at some point.

I'd like to just use the IE modeless window (since the app only runs
in IE anyway). It stays on top just fine, but when someone clicks a
link in the main page as commanded by the training assistant, the
assistant goes away.

 

[David Mark]

I'd like to just use the IE modeless window (since the app only runs

You mean with showModelessDialog? You could just use window.open and
then it won't go away. You could position and size the two windows so
that they don't overlap, as I don't think the latest IE has an "always
on top" option for popup windows.