Default setting for external links [0.7.0 dev]

Hägar

@Codejet

I think default behaviour of all outgoing linkage should be "_blank"

I would agree your statement.

Hägar

@frissdiegurke

Since NodeBB is saving your composer-content between sessions there shouldn't get any fatal mis-behavior out of this.

Except users in panic, which are flooding your inbox with support requests...

The current behaviour is unpredictable.

frissdiegurke

you may add an external-link icon using the following custom LESS:

@external-link-icon-hover-color: red;
@external-link-icon-size: 6pt;
@external-link-icon-spacing: 1px;
@fa-var-external-link: "\f08e";

a[href^='http://'], a[href^='https://'], a[href^='//'] {
    &:after {
        display: inline-block;
        font: normal normal normal 0 FontAwesome;
        text-rendering: auto;
        -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
        -moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale;
        transform: translate(0, 0);

        vertical-align: 50%;
        content: @fa-var-external-link;
        margin-left: @external-link-icon-spacing;
        font-size: @external-link-icon-size;
    }
    &:hover:after {
        color: @external-link-icon-hover-color;
    }
}

frissdiegurke

of cause you could use whatever selector you need instead of a[href^='http://'], a[href^='https://'], a[href^='//'], I don't know your specific domain-name to exclude full-referenced URLs to that same domain

Hägar

Nice, but doesn't resolve the user problem.

Hägar

@nhl.pl I've added the hint in the middle, so a guy totally missunderstood the problem and closed the issue without fixing.

Should i reenter the issue with a other description? Or maybe screenshots?

nhl.pl

I have tested it in "Chats" and when you go back the chat is closed and you have to reopen it. So yes, it can be an issue for new forum users.

nhl.pl

@Hägar said:

Should i reenter the issue with a other description? Or maybe screenshots?

You can leave a comment with images. No need to add a new issue as #2959 is referenced in #2958 (can be seen as related).

julian

Initially, yes, I am against hijacking the user preference for this as the expected behaviour is to open in the same page.

And as @a_5mith has mentioned, it is a quasi-standard to use shift/ctrl-click to open in a new tab.

Of course, that said, not everybody is aware of this, and it's especially a problem when you have anchors opening in the same page while you are in a stateless area of NodeBB (e.g. chat or composer open).

So I'm relaxing my stance against having system-wide defaults for link actions...

Alex

It's a bit off-topic but still related to default settings for external links. I haven't tested the acp of 0.7.0 yet and I was wondering if there was something like a whitelist for external links? Then if someone click on an external link we can activate the warning page "you are leaving the forum", but if it's a sub domain, a root domain or a trusted url (youtube) for example we don't show this page.