window.addEventListener is undefined in IE right after opening new window

[marcovdb]

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Current behavior
In one part of my application I open up a new window using window.open, but I want to attach some code to the window's beforeclose event (because I need to refresh some data on the page). Window.open returns a reference to the window object, but in IE if I access the reference right after opening the window the addEventListener method is undefined. If I wrap it in a short timeout it's usually OK, but this feels hackish an unreliable to me.

My current guess it's because Zone.js monkey-patches the addEventListener function and it's taking some time in IE.

Expected behavior
window.open should return a complete reference to the window object, with all of its methods intact.

Minimal reproduction of the problem with instructions

Check the following Plunker in IE and in Chrome (or any other browser, really) and observe the difference.
https://plnkr.co/edit/FbvnWDdaN5aheFZG7PDC?p=preview

What is the motivation / use case for changing the behavior?
We should be able to reliably access a newly opened window's object.

Please tell us about your environment:

• Browser: Internet Explorer 11

[JiaLiPassion]

I don't think it is a zone.js issue, the problem only occurs in plunker, in local it is ok, and in plunker, if you setimeout a little more longer, the listener1 will be ok, it seems window.open in plunker will return a not fully loaded window object, after 500ms, the window object is ok.

[marcovdb]

I think you're right. I had tested it locally without Zone.js so assumed "Zone.js issue", but locally even with Zone.js the problem doesn't occur. Apparently it just takes IE a while to get the new window (when the content is loaded from a remote server) in a state where events can be added. Weird that no one else would run into this issue, though. I spent tons of time googling it but haven't found any issues like this.

In any case, I came up with this:

    var newWin = window.open('foo.html');
    var newWinInit = false;
    while (newWinInit === false) {
      if (typeof newWin.addEventListener === 'function') {
        newWinInit = true;
      }
    }
    newWin.addEventListener('beforeunload', function (){
      console.log('window closed');
    });

And it fixes the issue, much more reliably than with a timeout. So, case closed.