External Links in New Window / New Tab Plugin
Open external links in a new window or new tab. SEO optimized and XHTML Strict compliant.
Opens external links in a new tab or a or new window. You can set URLs that should either be forced to open in a new window or ignored.
The plugin produces XHTML Strict compliant code and is search engine optimized (SEO).
This is done using JavaScript’s window.open()-function. It adds only a few lines of vanilla JavaScript to the page, and does not require any external libraries like jQuery.
Most other plugins perform a hack by altering the target parameter (i.e. <a href="http://somewhere.example" target="_blank">). That method is not XHTML Strict compliant.
This plugin handles the links client-side, which lets search engines follow the links properly. Also, if a browser does not support JavaScript, the plugin is simply inactive, and does not result in any errors.
If you need a more advanced plugin, with more options try our free WP External Links plugin.
Credits
Inspired by the Zap_NewWindow plugin by Tom Köhler.
The banner is a photo by Monja Da Riva.
Translations
Danish by Kristian Risager Larsen
Dutch by Paul Staring
Lithuanian by Vincent G
Other translations will be appreciated!
Known bugs
The plugin conflicts with other plugins that change the links’ `onClick´ attribute.
Original developer
Kristian Risager Larsen – kezze.dk
Installation
- Copy the plugin to /wp-content/plugins/
- Activate the plugin.
- Eventually, change the settings in Settings->External Links.
Screenshots
External links settings
FAQ
Just use standard Plugin overview page in WordPress admin section and deactivate it or rename plugin folder /wp-content/plugins/open-external-links-in-a-new-window over FTP access.
You can report security bugs through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team help validate, triage and handle any security vulnerabilities. Report a security vulnerability.
Changelog
1.44
- 2022-11-22
- minor security fixes
1.43
- 2022-05-06
- security fix reported by Automattic
1.42
- 2021-01-30
- added flyout menu
1.41
- 2020-10-21
- minor update
1.4
- 2019-08-26
- WebFactory took over development
- minor fixes
- 40,000 installs; 178,750 downloads
1.3.3
Verified compatibility with WordPress 5.0
1.3.2
Updated: Danish translation
1.3.1
Verified compatibility with WordPress 4.0
Added: Plugin logo for WordPress 4.0
Added: Dutch translation.
1.3
Added: Possibility to force and ignore user-defined strings in URLs. This feature has been requested.
Added: Lithuanian and Danish translation.
1.2
Added: Translation-ready.
1.1.1
Fixed: Deprecation warning (Thanks to boo1865)
1.1.0
Changed: Better practice for opening links. The plugin now uses the onClick-attribute instead of writing JavaScript directly into the href-attribute. This enables users to right-click the link and open in a new window/tab, save the target etc.
1.0.1
Fixed: Removes target attribute from links instead of setting the attribute to null. (Thanks to crashnet)
1.0
Fixed: Credits to Tom Köhler (Charset).
Fixed: Links.
0.9
Initial release.