[Sigia-l] Multiple Browser Windows in Applications

[Anders Ramsay]

On 9/12/02 3:07 PM, Shelley Goodwin at shelley at aerosurf.net wrote:

> Sorry I should have expanded a bit more. Ziya, from what I understand about
> web-based applications, it's best not to use multiple browser windows for
> anything but extraneous data like contextual help. ..Because, problems can
> arise with the user sessions such as losing state, creating a clone etc..
> So, the tricky part, I think, is that the best solution is to not utilize
> browsers to perform these kinds of tasks BUT, in order to escape the
> problems they were having with Java, the decision has been made to create
> web-based applications even with the knowledge that multiple browser
> windows are a problem.
> 
> I'm looking for something along the lines of "it's best not to do it, but
> if you have to, here's the best way to go about, here are some use cases,
> tests, etc..."
> 
If you need to find research to support an argument, there may be a problem
with the argument itself.  It appears that you are making an assumption that
an application appearing in a browser necessitates a multi-window
environment. Whether or not you have a multi-window environment is purely a
question of design (which includes choice of technology) - the fact that it
appears in a browser does not at all mean it needs to be multi-window.  You
could, for example, implement a full-fledged and complex single-window
application in a browser using Flash MX.

-Anders