why is this setTimeout not working

Question

I'm just getting into Java. I'm working on a simple script to open a window, then close it after a short delay. I've tried various connotations of the following with no avail. The function works (in that it opens, then closes the window) but the delay fails to happen.

function manualWindow(){
testWindow = window.open("popup.php","interaction","resizable=0,width=800,height=600,status=0");
setTimeout(testWindow.close(),5000);
}

thank you

possible duplicate of [Calling functions with setTimeout()](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3800512/calling-functions-with-settimeout), [Javascript setTimeout() is ignoring the timeout length](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4120781/javascript-settimeout-is-ignoring-the-timeout-length), — outis, Nov 09 '11 at 21:34
it would be nice if you accepted the correct answer that was provided to you — tkit, Aug 16 '12 at 09:37

Richard Dalton · Answer 1 · 2011-02-25T11:12:57.773

19

You want:

setTimeout(function() { testWindow.close(); },5000);

You current code is executing that function as soon as it is hit and then trying to run it's return value after the delay. By wrapping it up in the function it will be run correctly after 5 seconds.

Example:

<html>
<head></head>
<body>
<script type="text/javascript">
    function manualWindow(){
       testWindow = window.open("http://www.google.co.uk","interaction","resizable=0,width=800,height=600,status=0");
       setTimeout(function() { testWindow.close() },5000);
    }

    manualWindow();
</script>
</body>
</html>

edited Feb 25 '11 at 11:12

answered Feb 25 '11 at 10:45

Richard Dalton

34,315
6
69
88

sorry - I've tried all your suggestions non are working. is there something I'm missing? – Gilles Feb 25 '11 at 11:06
I've updated my answer with an example that works fine for me. Opens another window with google in and closes it 5 seconds later. – Richard Dalton Feb 25 '11 at 11:13
tried again now working - thanks for all your help - appreciate it – Gilles Feb 25 '11 at 11:20
2

np, could you make it as the accepted answer please :D – Richard Dalton Feb 25 '11 at 11:21

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Aug 11 '15 at 14:50

Firstly, you're defining your code within an anonymous function. This construct:

(function() {
  ...
)();

does two things. It defines an anonymous function and calls it. There are scope reasons to do this but I'm not sure it's what you actually want.

You're passing in a code block to setTimeout(). The problem is that update() is not within scope when executed like that. It however if you pass in a function pointer instead so this works:

(function() {
  $(document).ready(function() {
    update();
  });
});

because the function pointer update is within scope of that block.

But like I said, there is no need for the anonymous function so you can rewrite it like this:

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 25 '11 at 10:47

0

You are not using setTimeout correctly. Try this:

function manualWindow(){
   testWindow = window.open("popup.php","interaction","resizable=0,width=800,height=600,status=0");
   setTimeout(function() { testWindow.close(); },5000);
}

answered Feb 25 '11 at 10:47

Richard H

34,219
33
105
133

score -2 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 30 '11 at 10:04

I think your code is missing the qutoes in the first parameter testWindow.close().This can be corrected in the following way:

function manualWindow() {
    testWindow = window.open("http://www.google.com", "interaction", "resizable=0,width=800,height=600,status=0");
    setTimeout('testWindow.close()',5000);
}

manualWindow();

I found this link may help you a bit https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/window.setTimeout

why is this setTimeout not working

4 Answers4

Linked