blocking ad blocker software

[mmatthew]

Customers using our site are complaining that parts of it, such as pop up windows, do not work when they use ad blocker software. I would like to be able to detect this software and display a message to turn it off when using our site.

any other info on how to deal with site problems caused by ad blocker software is appreciated.

[Nevermore]

Ad blockers block the window.open function, so what you need to make is a script on the first page of your site which tries to open a window. When this window opens, it needs to define a variable which it will return to the original window. The script can then prompt the user to disable ad-blockers if that variable is never returned. I'm a bit busy to script that, but maybe someone else could?

[Charles]

It's the responsibility of the web author to follow the standards and make pages that work when pop-ups are blocked or when scripting is disabled. And it's easily done. If you use the following method to open your pop-ups you will stop getting those complaints.

<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/wai-pageauth.html#tech-scripts" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false">Guideline 6.3</a>

[mmatthew]

Thanks Charles, but what if I am not doing an anchor tag?

[Charles]

What are you doing?

[mmatthew]

our site automatically pops up windows under certain conditions. an example
<script language="JavaScript">
var url = "http://www.goinghere.com/thispage";
window.open(url,"win");
top.location.href ="#system##linkString#";
</script>

[Charles]

I need a little more to go on than that, but there's always a way. You just have to get creative. Sometimes the best way to work is to start with a site that works without JavaScript and then add. Flashing to people who know that they're blocking your pop-ups a notice that they're blocking your pop-ups is only going to anger the people who are currently annoyed.