`unsafeWindow` polyfill (for use in user scripts)

unsafeWindow.user.js

// ==UserScript==
// @name Emulate `unsafeWindow` in browsers that don’t support it.
// ==/UserScript==

// http://mths.be/unsafewindow
window.unsafeWindow || (
	unsafeWindow = (function() {
		var el = document.createElement('p');
		el.setAttribute('onclick', 'return window;');
		return el.onclick();
	}())
);

// You can now use `unsafeWindow`, ehm, safely.
console.log(unsafeWindow);
// If the current document uses a JavaScript library, you can use it in
// your user script like this:
console.log(unsafeWindow.jQuery);

Other things I’ve tried:

• document.defaultView: returns a window object but doesn’t inherit global variables from the document (e.g. unsafeWindow.jQuery === undefined)
• Function('return window')() (or even Function('return this')()) (suggested by @jdalton): same as above
• window.wrappedJSObject (to which unsafeWindow is an alias in Greasemonkey)

P.S. It bothers me that in the fallback case, unsafeWindow is an implied global, but window.unsafeWindow = … (or this.unsafeWindow = …) don’t work.

hott

Example usage: https://gist.github.com/1631807

[Update]

Used === instead of == and finally instead of an empty catch.

var gm_win = (function(){
    var a;
    try {
        a = unsafeWindow === window ? false : unsafeWindow;
    } finally {
        return a || (function(){
            var e = document.createElement('p');
            e.setAttribute('onclick', 'return window;');
            return e.onclick();
        }());
    }
}());

console.log(gm_win.SOMEAUTHKEY);

[Original]

This snippet is helpful, and it works when used in Opera and Chrome. However, I find that GM's unsafeWindow becomes invalid if this is used in Firefox. Probably because it's not part of the window object. In other words, I can't get it to work in Firefox.

Here's my solution.

var gm_uwin = (function(){
    var a;
    try {
        a = unsafeWindow == window ? false : unsafeWindow; // Chrome: window == unsafeWindow
    } catch(e) { }
    return a || (function(){
            var el = document.createElement('p');
            el.setAttribute('onclick', 'return window;');
            return el.onclick();
        }());
}());

console.log(gm_uwin.SOMEAUTHKEY); // This works in all three browsers.

Chrome creates an anon function that wraps window as the argument for unsafeWindow so they are actually the same safe-window object. Opera will throw an error. If a is false the fill is used, otherwise the real unsafeWindow is returned for Firefox.

@mathiasbynens
Is it just me or did they fix it in the latest Canary?
It returns the safe window, not the unsafe one anymore.

Think there is a issue on Canary Build 28.0.1477.2

It seems like this no longer works in Chrome 29.

https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=222652