Use target="_blank" for links in WordPress news and events and updates

[altonius]

After upgrading to 4.8 Evan I clicked on the links to display info about the upgrade, however. When I did this it opened the link in the same window/tab.

Is it possible to open this in a new tab by adding the target="_blank" attribute to the link. Likewise most of the links in the Admin Dashboard under "News and Events" open in the same window/tab - would you consider opening any of these links in a separate window/tab?

To me this makes sense as they're external sites and though related, not directly related to the dashboard - and as you can head down a rabbit-hole when exploring new features / bugfixes it can be annoying to have to click back through multiple pages to get back to the dashboard.

[iandunn]

Related: #23432

[shedonist]

Following the lead of the lower links in this widget, I've added target="_blank" to the event name links, but I've also added the external link icon and associated screen reader text so that users will be aware of the external link. This is keeping in line with #23432 which promotes informing users if a link does open in an external window.

[shedonist]

Added target="_blank", associated external icon and screen reader text along with styling so icon is in line.

[birgire]

There's a ticket #37941 about add rel="noopener noreferrer" to any target="_blank" for security reasons.

@shedonist I would think that it should also be the case for the target="_blank" in 41020.1.patch​ ?

[shedonist]

Great, thank you, @birgire. I've updated the patch to include

rel="noopener noreferrer"

to the event title links as well as the links in the footer of the widget (which also open externally).

[shedonist]

Added rel="noopener noreferrer" to the event title links and the external links in the footer of the same widget.

[swissspidy]

According to #41337 adding target="_blank" for the event links is a wontfix.

[shedonist]

Replying to swissspidy:

According to #41337 adding target="_blank" for the event links is a wontfix.

Bummer that this is a wontfix since it leaves the widget completely inconsistent within itself.

[swissspidy]

#44625 was marked as a duplicate.

[peterwilsoncc]

Given the topic for this ticket is target=_blank, I think it can be closed of as a duplicate of #41337. I know the other ticket later but has more discussion on it.

I think the suggestion of including rel="noopener noreferrer" on links in the dashboard included in 41020.2.patch​ is a good privacy enhancement for external links in the dashboard, so I will open a separate ticket for that.