Contrib.social

Site managers can configure external links so the icon opens in a new tab, but not the link itself

Open on Drupal.org →
Created on 20 May 2024, 11 months ago

Problem/Motivation

Clients invariably ask us to "make all links to external pages/resources open in a new tab (rather than leaving our site) ?"

We let them know it is broadly not recommended to force visitors to open links in new tabs (Nielsen Norman Group research-based user experience report).

We have then presented the options like this:

  1. BEST: Regular links (opens in same tab, those in the know can control+click or long press to open in a new tab)
  2. COMPROMISE: Regular links plus a separate open in new tab link (aside from visual clutter, one downside of this is the symbols for that is often used to indicate that the whole link opens in a new tab)
  3. NOT RECOMMENDED: Force the links to open in new tabs

Proposed resolution

External Link module provide an option to do the compromise where the external link symbol opens in a new tab, but the regular link works like normal. Probably we use a variation of the external link symbol in this case.

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

API changes

Data model changes

✨ Feature request
Status

Active

Version

1.0

Component

Code

Created by

🇺🇸United States mlncn Minneapolis, MN, USA

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Comments & Activities

  • Issue created by @mlncn
  • Comment 11 months ago →
    🇺🇸United States mlncn Minneapolis, MN, USA
  • Status changed to Postponed: needs info 6 months ago
  • Comment 6 months ago →
    🇺🇸United States smustgrave

    So I'm very hesitant to consider including this. As you mention it's not recommended practice and I feel there is accessibility implications too. Essentially you would have 2 separate links now and 1 of them is just an icon. Is this something we really want to do?

  • Comment 5 months ago →
    🇺🇸United States smustgrave

    If feel super strongly can review but seems like maybe it's own contrib module.

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