Launching a web page without displaying the URL in the Location box

I am trying to launch a web page from another but I need to hide the URL from appearing in the ocation box on the browser. The page I am trying to launch requires an ID and password to access and there are times when I need to feed those for the user. I can place it in the URL string, but then the user can see it when it programatically appears in the location box. Any ideas . . . Thanks!

First of all, just hiding the URL doesn't stop someone who know the basic of HTML viewing the source and seeing the username and password. If you want to do it *really* securely, use Perl or CGI to do this.

However, if it's not all *that* important, just use JavaScript to pop a new window sans Location bar:

This goes in the head:

<script language="JavaScript">
<!-- Hide
function openWindow() {
popupWin = window.open('http://your.url/here','WindowName','menubar,toolbar,directories,status,scrollbars,resizable,width=640,height=480');
}
// End Hiding -->
</script>

You can remove other toolbars by just removing the references to them.

Then call that script using something like:

<a href="javascript: openWindow()">Link Text</a>

adam

[This message has been edited by dahamsta (edited 08-20-99).]

Adam:

Thanks . . . that should probably suffice for this implementation. One more question? Is there a way to close that window, either programatically or via a button (or both)?

Thanks again . . .

Sure. The JavaSctipt function for closing a window is simply close(). So if you're trying to close the window from itself, use self.close(), for example:

<a href="javascript:self.close()">Close this window</a>

If you want to close that window from another window, use the name you called it in the original function. Using the code I gave you as a sample, the window is called "WindowName" (the second attribute), so you would close it from the original page like this:

<a href="WindowName.close()">Close the popup window</a>

Ok?

adam

Another option is to set up a frames page with the parent frame having the spoof URL, one frame with * rows with another spoof URL, and then pull the real page with 100% rows.