Chapter 8

The Browser Object Model

What’s in This Chapter?

• Understanding the window object, the core of the BOM
• Controlling windows, frames, and pop-ups
• Page information from the location object
• Using the navigator object to learn about the browser

Though ECMAScript describes it as the core of JavaScript, the Browser Object Model (BOM) is really the core of using JavaScript on the Web. The BOM provides objects that expose browser functionality independent of any web page content. For years, a lack of any real specification made the BOM both interesting and problematic, because browser vendors were free to augment it as they saw fit. The commonalities between browsers became de facto standards that have survived browser development mostly for the purpose of interoperability. Part of the HTML5 specification now covers the major aspects of the BOM, as the W3C seeks to standardize one of the most fundamental parts of JavaScript in the browser.