Feature #10712
closedOpen Site Template demo links in new window?
Added by Boone Gorges over 5 years ago. Updated over 5 years ago.
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Related issues
Updated by Boone Gorges over 5 years ago
- Related to Feature #9943: Site templates added
Updated by Boone Gorges over 5 years ago
- Category name set to Blogs (BuddyPress)
- Target version set to Future release
From https://redmine.gc.cuny.edu/issues/9943#note-30:
did we discuss opening links to Demo sites via the Site Template picker in a new window? Might make sense in the site creation flow to do that.
Best practices (usability, accessibility) are generally strongly against new-window links. If the user wants to open in a new window, it's possible using browser tools; if we set target="_blank", there's no way to disable the behavior. That said, I understand the reasoning behind it, and we can do it if necessary.
Another possible strategy is to add text to the effect of "(Right-click to open in new tab)" or something like that next to the demo links, though the instructions would need to be sensitive to browser/OS.
Updated by Matt Gold over 5 years ago
I agree that we should not open links in new windows. I was a big fan of target="_blank" in the early days of the web, but I have been convinced by usability reports and other pieces that this is no longer in line with best practices of web design.
some resources/rationales for this:
https://medium.com/the-metric/links-should-open-in-the-same-window-447da3ae59ba
https://blog.tbhcreative.com/2015/07/pros-and-cons-of-opening-links-in-new-window.html
Updated by Luke Waltzer over 5 years ago
Yes— I’m aware of accessibility issues and best practices here... but are we asking people to enter information (site URL/name/license/viability) and then subsequently inviting them to navigate away from that form to explorr the demo sites before submitting site request? Is the data they’ve entered being stored in the browser for them to click back to? What if they click around the demo site for a while?
Tried to test for myself, but am on mobile and links to demo sites are not visible there.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 5 years ago
We could add one of those "you are about to leave the page" JS warnings if someone has entered something into the form.
Also, if there are mobile styling issues, we should probably handle them as a separate thread.
Updated by Luke Waltzer over 5 years ago
Think js warning plus instruction on how to open in new window would do the trick
Updated by Boone Gorges over 5 years ago
- Target version changed from Future release to 1.14.1
Thanks. I'll see what I can do for the next release.
Updated by Boone Gorges over 5 years ago
- Target version changed from 1.14.1 to 1.14.2
Updated by Sonja Leix over 5 years ago
I understand Luke's concerns. I think the JS warning will likely work for now.
For a later and more user friendly version of this where the user isn't confronted with a warning at all, maybe we could implement what we often see on WordPress theme demo sites like this one: https://my.studiopress.com/themes/essence/#demo-full. See bar at the bottom that takes you back to where you were. It seems to not navigate you way from the site at all to display the demo, but rather loads the demo in a frame over the page. (text closing the demo, and then click "Live Demo" under the price tag again).
Updated by Boone Gorges over 5 years ago
- Status changed from New to Resolved
Thanks, all. I've made the following changes:
1. Added the "you are about to leave" messages. Most modern browsers do not support custom messages, so in most cases you'll see whatever text the browser generally shows you in such cases. https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac-site-templates/commit/6acd4c635391d2624e1e8fc40a2c611b12cb9861
2. Added help text for opening in a new window. https://i.imgur.com/KRFAup6.png https://github.com/cuny-academic-commons/cac-site-templates/commit/b15447ee3c421bb139ddfe1c65ee4775c64db62e
This will be live after the next release.