Joomla 1.5 comes with a popup window manager. The library pops a sized iframe in the center of the screen while darkening the surroundings. It is useful for wizards, performing minor actions, reporting information and for many other uses.

To invoke a popup you must include the javascript library and stylesheet:

Typical Practice

global $mainframe;
  $document = &$mainframe->getDocument();

  $document->addScript('../includes/js/joomla/popup.js');
  $document->addStyleSheet('../includes/js/joomla/popup.css');

or

Within a JView display method

  $document	= &$this->getDocument();
  $document->addScript('../includes/js/joomla/popup.js');
  $document->addStyleSheet('../includes/js/joomla/popup.css');

To display the popup, called window.open: 

var url='index3.php?option=com_content&task=wizard';
document.popup.show(url, 700, 500, null);

A typical case might be to link the popup to an Administrator toolbar task. In this case, use something similar to the following:

Popup linked to toolbar task

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
  function submitbutton(task)
  {
    var f = document.adminForm;
    if (task == 'deleteconfirm')
    {
      id = radioGetCheckedValue( f.id );
      var url='index3.php?option=com_content&task=wizard';
      document.popup.show(url, 700, 500, null);
    }
    else
    {
      submitform(task);
    }
  }
</script>

... to be continued