XHTML target=_blank

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I just realized, that the target="_blank" attribute in <a> tags is not allowed by the XHTML strict rules.

Do you know of any relevant attribute that open a link in a new window, that is XHTML valid?

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I just realized, that the target="_blank" attribute in <a> tags is not allowed by the XHTML strict rules.

Do you know of any relevant attribute that open a link in a new window, that is XHTML valid?

There is no attribute, maybe you get some javascript working...

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Or maybe I'll leave it this way

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Or maybe I'll leave it this way

this is one of the reasons that I use the xhtml transitional doc type...

I use transitional for everything too.

Depricate <b> and instead put class="something" and an entry for the formatting in a stylesheet - just silly if you ask me.

Didn't know target wasn't valid.

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I use transitional for everything too.

Depricate <b> and instead put class="something" and an entry for the formatting in a stylesheet - just silly if you ask me.

Didn't know target wasn't valid.

target="_blank" is not supported under strict is because specifying that attribute acts as something presentational, which is exactlly what XHTML is NOT intended for, the same is for the "b" element.

style is done by style sheets...in XML, actually it should be possible to parse a XHTML strict document like a regular xml document...

I was looking for an answer to this a month or two ago. It seems such a pain to have to use javascript when there could be such an easy way to do it in the HTML. Still haven't found a better answer though. And this is why I, and so many other people, use XHTML transitional even though the standards nazis look down their nose at it.

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I was looking for an answer to this a month or two ago. It seems such a pain to have to use javascript when there could be such an easy way to do it in the HTML. Still haven't found a better answer though. And this is why I, and so many other people, use XHTML transitional even though the standards nazis look down their nose at it.

if you need the blank target use a different doc type

If you have to use _blank and xhtml strict then you can always pass it to javascript

Code:

<a href="some.html" onclick="return ! window.open(this.href);">Targeted Keywords</a>

This is probably the shortest use of javascript to do this, however its a little on the ugly side and will return errors in a WAI audit (its valid as it degrades but will be flagged as a potential problem)

The method I prefer is detailed here
http://loadaveragezero.com/app/s9y/index.php?/archives/95-Serving-Valid-XHTML-Strict-with-target_blank.html
Slightly more code, and it presumes your _blank are for external sites, given if you have been working in XHTML strict and WAI guidelines you will have already been declaring external links, this is integrates nicely.

While not getting into the is dom hierarchy structure or presentation debate, XHTML strict is there for a reason if you need to hack it with Javascript I guess you have to ask why you are doing it. (I still do anyway!)

It's easier to just don't use target=_blank.

I mean, it's the user who decides if the window will open in another window or not. What you should do is include (by CSS) a little icon on the link to warn the user in case of a external link (oh, and don't forget the "rel=external" attribute on the <a> tag)

I would just like to add to daquino's post: if you create your a tags with 'rel="external"', you can write a script that will read in all of the tags (think: document.getElementsByTagName('a')) and check their rel attribute.  Then, you can add an onclick handler that will open a new window with the source of 'this.href' which is to point to the current a tag's url - and then of course return 'false' so the URL doesn't execute.

Just like the URL I posted 2 posts up as the preferred option.

The good news for those _blank lovers is it is in the html5 specs the bad news its not in the new xhtml specs so when the world decides which way it will go we might not need such hacks. Though it is worth remembering that many users find opening new windows very annoying unless their is a good reason. If you are worried your content is not good enough for them to come back perhaps you might want to look at that before implementing _blank of course their are dozens of other reasons as well many completely valid.

but I still recommend not using "onclick" element, as long as aaron's solution is better

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