Brickfield Education Labs

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Fix link targets wizard provides you with “link target” errors for the course, or courses and updates the links target attribute by removing “_blank” to prevent the link going to a new window in the browser to help fix them quickly.

 

Links which must open into a new browser window, should warn users at least, by including “(New window)” in the link text itself.

 

N.B.: In the top right of the Fix link targets wizard is a “Help docs” button that will bring your directly to this documentation page.

Impact of a link opening into a new browser window

If a link opens into a new browser window without warning, the user may not realise until it’s too late – especially if they are using a screenreader. This can cause confusion and irritation, not least because they are now unable to use the “Back” button to navigate backwards if needed.

Why should you not force links to open in a new window?

To provide some background, there are very few valid reasons for forcing a user into a new window and there are many reasons why you should not do so.

 

One quote from the Nielsen Norman Group, or NN Group, an industry recognised World Leader in Research-Based User Experience is “Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ashtray on the customer’s carpet. “

 

Here are some reasons why you should not force links to open in new windows

  • For everyone, bouncing people into another window is a surprise and not a good one (like a box of chocolates). This will further create problems for users with low sight or cognitive disabilities who may not see that a new tab has opened.
  • Opening a new window or tab resets the back button in that window. Users with screen readers cannot go back to the page they came from. This breaks the navigation experience for that user.
  • Whenever someone clicks a link, they should be able to go back. The back button is a heavily used feature in browsers.
  • If the person is using a terminal – they force one window only generally, so putting a link into a new window literally means they cannot navigate between windows/tabs and will either lose the existing site or not access the new link.
  • Navigating multiple windows/tabs is a horrible experience and can cause a lot of confusion on mobile devices – especially phones – this is not an experience you want to force on your users

How the Accessibility+ Toolkit handles link targets

With our premium Toolkit, we also have alternate helpers that offer different ways to handle opening links in new windows. One example is a local plugin which creates a popup, like a Confirm popup, but for the user to decide from the following options for a link which has been set to open in a new window:

  • Open in a new window.
  • Open in the same window.
  • Cancel, returning to the original page.

 

In short – let the user decide if they want to open a link in a new window or not – and perhaps add “(external site)” as text so they can tell if it’s external or not.

Where to find the Fix link targets wizard

The Fix link targets wizard can be accessed via:

  • From Site administration: Site administration > Brickfield Enable > Accessibility management > Go to wizards > Fix > Link targets.
  • From a course: Course actions menu > More > Brickfield Accessibility+ Toolkit > Fix > Link targets.
  • From the course block: Accessibility+ Review block > View Accessibility+ Report (Chart icon) > Fix > Link targets.
  • From the Check list report: The “Fix” link that’s available for the “Links opening into a new window should warn users in advance” check.

How to use the Fix link targets wizard

The Fix link targets wizard displays a page which includes a table where each row is one of the links found that opens in a new window.

 

The Fix link targets wizard provides the ability to:

  • Submit updates for links in bulk.
  • Make an exception by hiding an individual error.
The fix link target wizard displaying the page heading, number of reviewed courses, help docs button, number of errors, and the link target errors table. The link target errors table has 4 columns: details, existing, update to, and hide.

The heading area of the wizard will show how many errors are found, and whether the errors listed are for one course or many courses.

  • If the results are for one course, the course name is displayed.
  • If the results are for more than one course, the number of courses is displayed.

 

The table displays a row for each error that contains four parts:

  • Details
    • Course Name.
    • Course Section.
    • Activity name.
    • The link to Edit the content.
  • Existing context
    • Existing content.
    • The button to view the error in its full context.
  • Update to – This link will no longer open into a new window or tab
  • Hide – The checkbox to hide the error when submitted.

Submit updates for bulk fixing

When updates to the errors are submitted for bulk fixing, it will only process the errors on the current page. All fixed errors are temporarily logged and can be reverted if needed in the Bulk fix log. 

 

To submit updates to the errors for bulk fixing:

  1. Ensure you are viewing the Fix link targets wizard.
  2. If you want to hide this error, select the “Hide” checkbox.
  3. Select the “Submit Bulk fixing” button to submit all the updates at once.

 

All hidden errors are located in the Hidden errors page.

Capability requirements

Access to the Brickfield Accessibility+ Toolkit is controlled by capabilities and users must have the correct capabilities in the correct context.

  • ‘tool/bfplus:viewsystemtools’ capability – To view site level reports and wizards.
  • ‘tool/bfplus:viewcoursetools’ capability – To view individual course reports and wizards.

 

For more information, go to: Capabilities.