TheWindow Management API allows you to get detailed information on the displays connected to your device and more easily place windows on specific screens, paving the way towards more effective multi-screen applications.

Concepts and usage

Historically, we have usedWindow.open() to manage browser windows related to the current application — opening new windows, resizing and closing existing windows, etc. For example, to open a 400×300 window 50 pixels from the left and top of your screen:

const myWindow = window.open(  "https://example.com/",  "myWindow",  "left=50,top=50,width=400,height=300",);

You can retrieve information about your screen from theWindow.screen property, such as how much screen space you have available to place windows in.

However, the above features are limited.Window.screen only returns data about the primary screen, and not secondary displays available to a device. To move a window to a secondary display, you could useWindow.moveTo(), but you'd have to guess what coordinates to use based on where it is placed in your setup relative to the primary display.

The Window Management API provides more robust, flexible window management. It allows you to query whether your display is extended with multiple screens and get information on each screen separately: windows can then be placed on each screen as desired. It also provides event handlers to allow you to respond to changes in the available screens, new fullscreen functionality to choose which screen to put into fullscreen mode (if any), and permissions functionality to control access to the API.

For details on how to use it, seeUsing the Window Management API.

Use cases

The Window Management API is useful in cases such as:

• Multi-window graphics editors and audio processors that may wish to arrange editing tools and panels across different screens.
• Virtual trading desks that want to show market trends in multiple windows and put specific windows of interest in fullscreen mode.
• Slideshow apps that want to show speaker notes on the internal primary screen and the presentation on an external projector.

Permissions policy integration

Thewindow-managementPermissions-Policy can be used to control permission to use the Window Management API. Specifically:

• Usage of theWindow.getScreenDetails() method. If blocked, itsPromise will reject with aNotAllowedError exception.
• Querying theWindow.screen.isExtended property. If blocked, it will always returnfalse.

Developers can explicitly grant permission for an<iframe> to use Window Management via theallow attribute:

<iframe src="3rd-party.example" allow="window-management"></iframe>

Interfaces

ScreenDetailsSecure context

Represents the details of all the screens available to the user's device.

ScreenDetailedSecure context

Represents detailed information about one specific screen available to the user's device.

Extensions to other interfaces

TheScreenchange eventSecure context

Fired on a specific screen when it changes in some way — for example available width or height, or orientation.

Screen.isExtendedSecure context

A boolean property that returnstrue if the user's device has multiple screens, andfalse if not.

Element.requestFullscreen(), thescreen option

Specifies on which screen you want to put the element in fullscreen mode.

Window.getScreenDetails()Secure context

Returns aPromise that fulfills with aScreenDetails object instance.

Examples

You can find full examples here:

• Basic multi-window learning environment (see thesource code).
• Multi-window Platformer Game (see thesource code).
• Window placement demo (see thesource code).

Specifications

Browser compatibility