Question

I know that most links should be left up to the end-user to decide how to open, but we can’t deny that there are times you almost ‘have to’ force into a new window (for example to maintain data in a form on the current page).

What I’d like to know is what the consensus is on the ‘best’ way to open a link in a new browser window.

I know that <a href='url' target='_blank'> is out. I also know that <a href='#' onclick='window.open(url);'> isn’t ideal for a variety of reasons. I’ve also tried to completely replace anchors with something like <span onclick='window.open(url);'> and then style the SPAN to look like a link.

One solution I’m leaning towards is <a href='url' rel='external'> and using JavaScript to set all targets to ‘_blank’ on those anchors marked ‘external’.

Are there any other ideas? What’s better? I’m looking for the most XHTML-compliant and easiest way to do this.

UPDATE: I say target=’_blank’ is a no no, because I’ve read in several places that the target attribute is going to be phased out of XHTML.

Answer 1

I am using the last method you proposed. I add rel=’external’ or something similar and then use jQuery to iterate through all links and assign them a click handler:

$(document).ready(function() {   $('a[rel*=external]').click(function(){     window.open($(this).attr('href'));     return false;    }); }); 

I find this the best method because:

• it is very clear semantically: you have a link to an external resource
• it is standards-compliant
• it degrades gracefully (you have a very simple link with regular href attribute)
• it still allows user to middle-click the link and open it in new tab if they wish