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I am trying to follow the advice from https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/noopener and https://mathiasbynens.github.io/rel-noopener/ and am trying to set the value for rel to be noreferrer noopener. The thing is that I cannot set the href value as it is dynamic. I need to make a Api call to my internal endpoint to get the url. As such I wonder whether the following will still work

   <a ng-click="getUrl()" rel="noreferrer noopener">
                            <i class="action icon view"></i>
   </a>

   var getUrl = function() {
         // call some endpoint, on success
         $window.open(url, '_blank');
   }

Is there still any value on setting rel value ?

sideshowbarker
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tabiul
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1 Answers1

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It doesn’t work: The noopener attribute won’t have the expected effect in the case in the question—that is, for a window/tab that’s opened from a link without the href attribute. Simple test:

<!doctype html>
<title>simple noopener test</title>

<a onclick = "getUrl()"
rel = "noreferrer noopener">Case 1: click here to open a new tab that <b>will</b>
have access to the window object of this document (despite the'noopener')</a>

<p>
<a href="http://example.com"
rel = "noreferrer noopener">Case 2: click here to open a new tab that <b>will not</b>
have access to the window object of this document (because of the'noopener'</a>

<script>
var getUrl = function() {
  window.open("http://example.com", '_blank');
}
</script>

In Case 1 in that example, if you check the window.opener of the new tab/window that gets opened, you’ll see it’s non-null. But check the new window/tab in Case 2, and you’ll see it’s null.

Is there still any value on setting rel value ?

No—for the case in the question, it seems there’s no value in setting noopener, because it’s not going to prevent the new window/tab from access to the window of the document that opened it.

sideshowbarker
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  • Thanks. What about using the `window` object returned in `window.open` and then doing `window.opener = null`? – tabiul Aug 30 '17 at 01:18
  • Yeah for the workaround, see https://mathiasbynens.github.io/rel-noopener/#recommendations: You’d need to do it this way:`var otherWindow = window.open(); otherWindow.opener = null; otherWindow.location = url;`. – sideshowbarker Aug 30 '17 at 01:24