[MGNLSTK-26] Don't kill the back button: Do not open external links in a new window Created: 12/Nov/08  Updated: 04/Nov/15  Resolved: 04/Nov/15

Status: Closed
Project: Magnolia Standard Templating Kit (closed)
Component/s: None
Affects Version/s: None
Fix Version/s: None

Type: Bug Priority: Major
Reporter: Timo Wirth Assignee: Philipp Bärfuss
Resolution: Won't Do Votes: 0
Labels: 4_0_sprint5, review1
Remaining Estimate: Not Specified
Time Spent: Not Specified
Original Estimate: Not Specified

Template:
Acceptance criteria:
Empty
Date of First Response:

 Description   

1) in XHTML 1.0 strict target="_blank" is depricated.
2) The Button is the most reliable and most popular feature in a browser. All users know how to use it.
3) Accessibility Issue: Screenreader users don't get the information that a new window is openend. It's very hard to come to come back or to change windows.
4) Don't panic that user don't come. If the content is relevant for them they come. It's even easier for them if they can use the back button.

So please do not open external in a new window and eleminate target="_blank".



 Comments   
Comment by Christian Ringele [ 12/Nov/08 ]

In the concpet it is defined, that an external link is opening in a new page.
So this definition in the concept is obsolete?

Removing it is no big deal, just wanted to ask before i remove the "_blank"

Comment by Boris Kraft [ 12/Nov/08 ]

Maybe I am old-fashioned, but for me an external link always has to open in a new window. Automatically would be best.

So if this is really a concern, should we make it configurable? Obviously it would be best if a screen-reader is automatically detected and hence in that case we do not open a new window?

Comment by Magnolia International [ 12/Nov/08 ]

As i explained Christian a few days ago, _blank is definitely not the way to do this. If new windows are really wanted (think again), it's trivial to achieve using js in a much more accessible fashion, nowadays.

Comment by Boris Kraft [ 12/Nov/08 ]

I don't care how it is achieved, what I meant is that I believe opening external links in a new window is for many site owners what they want.

Comment by Magnolia International [ 12/Nov/08 ]

i was about to edit my own comment - provided we can use a selector (and I believe we can since we have a specific class for these external links), the behavior to open external links in a new window can be added through javascript - which means, in turn, that configurability is inherently already there: commenting in or out one line of javascript (i.e editing one template) would toggle the behavior. Is that configurable enough or do we want explicit configuration for this ? (i'd tend to not add complexity to the configuration for things which can easily be modified in templates)

Comment by Boris Kraft [ 12/Nov/08 ]

Given the fact that this is of "global" impact I am for a configuration option. But I am open to technical reasoning regarding this issue - is it possible to automatically open a new window for all external links? On optionally, to turn that behavior off or selectively turn it off for screen readers?

Comment by Timo Wirth [ 12/Nov/08 ]

google is not opening external links in a new window

Comment by Timo Wirth [ 12/Nov/08 ]

if we like, we can open a new window with javascript just refering to the class="extern". So we don't need the target attribute.

Comment by Philipp Bracher [ 13/Nov/08 ]

This kind of configuration should go into the site configuration. Similar things like link resolving are planed to be there too.

Comment by Michael Mühlebach [ 04/Nov/15 ]

Given the thousands of other issues we have open that are more highly requested, we won't be able to address this issue in the foreseeable future. Instead we will focus on issues with a higher impact, and more votes.
Thanks for taking the time to raise this issue. As you are no doubt aware this issue has been on our backlog for some time now with very little movement.
I'm going to close this to set expectations so the issue doesn't stay open for years with few updates. If the issue is still relevant please feel free to reopen it or create a new issue.

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