If you enter any external link with a protocol different from http, the string "http://" is prepended to it.

This is due to STKUtil only checking of a string prefix of "http://", but fails to detect other protocols such as https. I've attached a new implementation of both affected STKUtil methods. I couldn't create an actual patch in the given timeframe easily, sorry.

The following two methods accept any protocol, but still prepend "http://" in case none is given:

public static String getExternalLink(Content content, String linkNodeName){
String externalLink = content.getNodeData(linkNodeName).getString();

if(!externalLink.contains("://"))

{ externalLink = "http://"+externalLink; }

return externalLink;
}

public static String getExternalLinkTitle(Content content, String linkNodeName, String linkTitleNodeName){
String linkTitle = content.getNodeData(linkTitleNodeName).getString();
if(StringUtils.isNotEmpty(linkTitle))

{ return linkTitle; }

String externalLink = content.getNodeData(linkNodeName).getString();
int idx = externalLink.indexOf("://");
if(idx != -1){
if (externalLink.length() > idx+3)

{ externalLink = externalLink.substring(idx+3); }

else

{ externalLink = ""; }

}
return externalLink;
}