Bug: OpenWindow() formula not working

Suggestion Box Bugs
1

OpenWindow() is not supported in some of docs.

Screen Shot 2020-07-21 at 4.23.23 PM
Screen Shot 2020-07-21 at 4.23.23 PM1032Ă—824 23.2 KB

2

This is an action formula so I think it’s only available for use with a button. You should see it available in the button action formula editor, but won’t see it in a canvas or column formula editor.

1 Like
3

What Ben said. It’s an action, so it’s only available in buttons and automations.

If you want to make a clickable link, use Hyperlink(text, url) instead.

1 Like
4

Ah you guys are right!! Thank you :slight_smile:

For extra credit - is there a way to chain openWindow() to open a group of urls, ala:

RunActions(
  OpenWindow(thisRow.[URL]),
  OpenWindow(thisRow.[URL 2]),
  OpenWindow(thisRow.[URL 3...]
)
5

With mixed results there is:

(depends on the browser I guess)

6

This doesn’t sound like a great practice to use. It’s like clicking on a spam add and then lots of tabs open up. I might try to avoid using this strategy in general. The user should always know what to expect.

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7

Agree, although one valid reason that comes to mind is if e.g. I have a freelancing doc and every time I start my workday I want to open all resources (e.g. doc 1, doc 2, doc 3, zapier, asana etc) for that client at once.

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8

Yes this is my usecase exactly; specific projects require multiple resources and want the user to be able to press one button and load all the URLs!

9

OK my ultimate conclusion here is that there are multiple different approaches to work here. The main thing is that the first attempt many browsers will allow one pop up but block the rest. This can be manually accepted via an icon in the url bar similar to:
Screen Shot 2020-07-22 at 2.14.08 PM
Once clicking that and allowing multiple tabs to open, firing the multi-open Coda action DOES open the tabs.

10

I would still suggest against this as a practice and having this happen from within a doc.

If you’re using this for a personal use-case, I think a bookmarks feature in the browser is a better bet to go with. Just put those links in a folder, then you can open all tabs in that folder with a click.

An abuse vector for spam links is to try to force the opening of multiple tabs and this is adding that to a doc. Getting caught in antivirus blocking can be an issue here. I wouldn’t use something that has the potential to block you or someone else from being able to use a doc or to have to search through antivirus settings to clear it.