PHP External Links

justlukeyou

Hi,

I am trying to open a link from my database into a black tab.

I have tried: "target=\"_blank\">"

Is there a simple method opening a link from database in a new window instead of loading in the existing window?

big_nerd

justlukeyou,

You must use target="_blank" or use JavaScript to force it into a new window.

These are regulations based on html, not PHP, since this decision is based on the browser, not the server side.

justlukeyou

Thanks thats great,

Could you please let me know how I can get either method to work? I have tried everything I can think of but it wont work.

Isn't there a common method for opening links to in pages when using PHP.

bradgrafelman

justlukeyou wrote:
Isn't there a common method for opening links to in pages when using PHP.

No, since PHP has nothing to do with how links are opened; as big.nerd points out, you're dealing with HTML - not PHP.

Speaking of, thread moved to ClientSide Technologies forum. Perhaps you should show us the generated HTML code that doesn't appear to be working?

justlukeyou

Hi,

My code is below. It just prints an image with a link attached. I have had a good look around the internet but I thought there would be a very common way of opening a link in to an external page. I cant work out how I can do this in HTML.

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$id = $row['ID'];
$image = $row['awImage'];
$link = $row['link'];

<?php

{

for ($i = 1 ; $i <= 4 ; ++$i)

echo "<a href=\"$link\"><img src=\"$image\" /></a>" ;
echo "<br/>";

}
}

Beffic

justlukeyou;10974009 wrote:

<?php


{

for ($i = 1 ; $i <= 4 ; ++$i)


echo "<a href=\"$link\"><img src=\"$image\" /></a>" ;
echo "<br/>";



}
}

Here is you problem, you are trying to read the php variable in html which is not possible. To do what you are asking you must separate the php from the html with ".$variable."

here is your fixed code.

<?php


{

for ($i = 1 ; $i <= 4 ; ++$i)


echo "<a href=\"".$link."\"><img src=\"".$image."\" /></a>" ;
echo "<br/>";



}
}

johanafm

Actually, that is not the problem. Strings delimited by double quotes (") are subject to string interpolation. As such, the output of these are identical

$var = 123;

echo "var is \"$var\" <br/>";
echo "var is \"" . $var . "\" <br/>";

Not being a fan of escaped quotes, single or double, I'd personally prefer using a single quoted string, which is not subject to string interpolation.

echo 'var is "' . $var . '"<br/>';

You could of course go the other way as well which makes for cleaner code in this case, but it also means you might have to start using regexp to find all links with target blank since some have target="blank" while others have target='blank'

echo "var is '$var'<br/>";

Or why not use heredoc syntax?

echo <<<EOS
var is "$var"<br/>
EOS

However, turning back to the initial problem, there is no 'target="_blank" in the output. Also, do note the difference between what you posted, php code, as opposed to what was asked for, the generated html code. In this case it made no difference to find the actual error, but understanding the difference between the php code you write and the code it generates is important.

dalecosp

johanafm;10974041 wrote:
However, turning back to the initial problem, there is no 'target="blank" in the output. Also, do note the difference between what you posted, php code, as opposed to what was asked for, the generated html code. In this case it made no difference to find the actual error, but understanding the difference between the php code you write and the code it generates is important.

And it may, or may not, be worth mentioning, but regarding "blank":

It opens a new tab in some browsers, not a new window.
It's deprecated in the most contemporary DTD standards.

So, you need something like Kevin Yank's "externLinks()" Javascript function to do this with XHTML Strict, and if you really want a new window, you may need to use "_new".