[removed].href vs clicking on an Anchor

Question

What\'s the difference between clicking on:

vs.

calling window.location.href = ...

?

Answer 1

Setting window.location.href = 'thepage.html' is the same as calling:

window.open('thepage.html', '_self');

I.e. the target is limited to the same window, as that is where the location property is. This has the same effect as clicking a link without a target attribute:

...

You can use the open method instead to specify a different target, like a new window:

window.open('thepage.html', '_blank');

This has the same effect as clicking a link with that target:

...

You can also use the open method to open a new window. The return value is a reference to the window, so you can use that to set the location of that window instead of the current window:

var w = window.open('about:blank', '_blank');
w.location.href = 'thepage.html';