Opening links in a new window

Like it or not, people often expect certain documents (i.e. PDFs) to open in a tab or window. Often enough, the ugly solution of target="top" or similar is used otherwise JavaScript is employed to redirect links. Both methods are a wonderful source of confusion and annoyance.

With this in mind, I cobbled together my own solution employing the wonders of jQuery to handle the selectors:

$(function(){
  $("a[href$='.pdf']").click(function(e){
    //don't interfere with modifier keys
    if (e.altKey || e.ctrlKey || e.shiftKey || e.metaKey) {
      return true;
    }
    window.open($(this).attr("href"));
    return false;
  }).attr("title", function(){
    return this.title + " (Opens in a new window)"
  });
});

Two key things happen here: modifier keys are left alone so power users are happy and the anchor”s title is altered to give users a hint of what’s going on.