Document: open() method
Deprecated
Avoid using this feature in new projects.
The dynamic markup insertion API, which includes document.write(), has "very idiosyncratic behavior" which can be difficult to debug.
This feature may be a candidate for removal from web standards or browsers.
Consider using the following features instead: DOM.
The Document.open() method opens a document for
writing.
This does come with some side effects. For example:
- All event listeners currently registered on the document, nodes inside the document, or the document's window are removed.
- All existing nodes are removed from the document.
Syntax
open()
Parameters
None.
Return value
A Document object instance.
Examples
The following simple code opens the document and replaces its content with a number of different HTML fragments, before closing it again.
document.open();
document.write("<p>Hello world!</p>");
document.write("<p>I am a fish</p>");
document.write("<p>The number is 42</p>");
document.close();
Notes
An automatic document.open() call happens when
document.write() is called after the page has loaded.
Content Security
This method is subject to the same same-origin policy as other properties, and does not work if doing so would change the document's origin.
Three-argument document.open()
There is a lesser-known and little-used three-argument version of
document.open(), which is an alias of Window.open() (see
its page for full details).
This call, for example opens github.com in a new window, with its opener set to
null:
document.open("https://www.github.com", "", "noopener=true");
Two-argument document.open()
Browsers used to support a two-argument document.open(), with the
following signature:
document.open(type, replace);
Where type specified the MIME type of the data you are writing (e.g.
text/html) and replace if set (i.e., a string of "replace")
specified that the history entry for the new document would replace the current history
entry of the document being written to.
This form is now obsolete; it won't throw an error, but instead just forwards to
document.open() (i.e., is the equivalent of just running it with no
arguments). The history-replacement behavior now always happens.
Specifications
| Specification |
|---|
| HTML # dom-document-open-dev |