Is it possible to open a URL in a pop-up with a Coda Pack action?

Making Packs
1

Hi,
I would like my pack to open a pop-up window but cannot figure out how to do it, as the “window” object is not recognized in Coda SDK.
Any idea how to do it?
I would like to do something like this:

const popup = window.open(“https://coda.io”, “_blank”, “width=600,height=400”);
popup.focus();

2

Hi @Elian_Faggion - Unfortunately it’s not possible for a Pack to open a window. You can learn more about how Packs run here:

All Pack code is run on the server, ensuring a consistent and secure environment.

Packs are run in a custom JavaScript execution environment created by Coda, compatible with the ES2022 standard. You can use all the modern JavaScript features, but browser- and Node-specific objects are not available (window , fs , etc).

Because of that they can’t open windows directly like you can in regular browser JavaScript code. The pattern that some Pack makers use is to have a Pack formula that returns a URL, and instruct the user to pass that into the OpenWindow() formula to open it in a new window. Here’s an example of one of my personal Packs where I did that:

3

Thank you @Eric_Koleda for your very thorough reply !
That is a big limitation indeed !
The OpenWindow formula seems to always open the link in a new tab, which is not the desired behavior (I was looking for a pop-up action).
I guess that I will have to invent a different solution then !