invalid html (href target tag)

Question

I've curious how this should be properly done.

I ran a page im working on through the w3 html validateor and I got one error message

Line 47, Column 54: Attribute "target" exists, but can not be used for this element.**

<ul><li><a href="./jobops/1000 Design PM.pdf" target="blank">1000 Design PM</a></li>

You have used the attribute named above in your document, but the document type you are using does not support that attribute for this element. This error is often caused by incorrect use of the "Strict" document type with a document that uses frames (e.g. you must use the "Transitional" document type to get the "target" attribute), or by using vendor proprietary extensions such as "marginheight" (this is usually fixed by using CSS to achieve the desired effect instead).

any idea on how i can have a link open a new window but not use the target tag?

Answer 1

Shouldn't it be...

target="_blank"

Regardless... You could open a new window using javascript, but that breaks the beauty of simple browsing. What if I'm browsing using Lynx or something?

Answer 2

You can use JavaScript to open new windows, which avoids the issue of target being invalid in modern HTML.

However, this bypasses various systems people have in place to warn them about new windows (or prevent them from opening) so you are better off using the target attribute (and switching to a Doctype that allows it).

Better still is to leave it to the user to decide when they want a new window. Aside from the annoyance factor, they do introduce accessibility problems.

Answer 3

Using:

target="_blank"

breaks strict XHTML validation methods. Here's a document detailing a workaround:

Answer 4

Instead of target="_blank" (who will never validate) you could use javascript like this:

<a onclick='window.open("./jobops/1000 Design PM.pdf", "_blank");return false;' href="./jobops/1000 Design PM.pdf">1000 Design PM</a>

Then the link will open in a new window, and your page will validate.

The users who doesn't have Javascript enabled (even though that is only about 2% of all users), will still be able to follow the link with this method. The guy's have a good point in the comments :)

Have a nice weekend everyone...

Answer 5

The target attribute is not part of the Strict variants of HTML 4 and XHTML 1.0 as well as XHTML 1.1.

So you would need to use a workaround using JavaScript:

<a href="./jobops/1000 Design PM.pdf" class="_blank">1000 Design PM</a>

var aElems = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
for (var i=0, n=aElems.length; i<n; ++i) {
    if (/(?:^|\s+)_blank(?:\s+|$)/.test(aElems[i].className)) {
        aElems[i].onclick = function() {
            return !window.open(this.href, "_blank");
        }
    }
}

Or (in the future) CSS 3 (see Hyperlink Presentation Module):

a._blank {
    target: new;
}

Answer 6

target="_blank"

Will not validate strict because the 'target' attribute has been deprecated.

Instead, try something similar to the aforementioned onclick workaround, but you don't need the "_blank" in there either. Simply:

<a href="./jobops/1000 Design PM.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href); return false;">1000 Design PM</a>

Will work. The reason for the deprecation of "target" is because HTML is used to semantically mark up data whereas the target attribute was providing behaviour, which is what javascript is for.

If the user has javascript turned off then the URL will simply open in the same window.