Open links in external browser

[maxkueng]

Some thoughts and opinions on what links inside the rendered markdown document should do.

• Links to external sites should open in the default desktop browser.
• Links to sections within the same document (e.g. #my-section-title) should load in the same window.
• Debatable: Relative links to other markdown documents in (e.g. ./CHANGELOG.md)
• Debatable: Links to external markdown documents (e.g. github.com/other/project/README.md)
• Thinkable: How does one get back after opening a link that opens in the same window?

atom-shell has the shell module that could help with this. It also provides shell.openExternal(url).

[yoshuawuyts]

I agree with most of your reasoning. I think relative paths could just spawn a new instance of vmd, keeping the original in place. Links to non-local paths should probably just be opened in the browser. What do you think?

[maxkueng]

I think relative paths could just spawn a new instance of vmd, keeping the original in place.

Brilliant!

[aubinlrx]

I agree it would be great if we can navigate between sections inside vmd and open external sites in the default browser.

I'm not really fan with creation of a new instance. If you write a doc with a table of content you don't want to open a new vmd window.

It could be a parameter at launch vmd --book table-of-content.md

[yoshuawuyts]

@aubinlorieux that seems like a fair use case. Think it would make sense to have it be the default behavior since I can't think of any use case where it would be blocking. Maybe adding shift + click to open a new window would be nice. That way vmd also stays consistent with existing browser behavior.

[aubinlrx]

Maybe adding shift + click to open a new window would be nice.

Yes it would be nice !

[maxkueng]

I agree that it can be weird if relative links to other Markdown documents spawn a new instance / window. But if any links other than same-page-jumps between sections open in the same window there has to be a way to get back to the previous document. Personally I really like that vmd has no buttons and such.

Leveraging Shift + Click, or the middle mouse button may be an option to provide alternative behaviors. Good idea.

[mattdesl]

You could add global shortcuts to handle back/next buttons without adding any additional UI.

[DeeplyUncertain]

Just checking to see if there yet exists a feature that works for section links/internal links. I've been trying to make a functional table of contents without having to use a browser, but nothing's really worked yet. I'm rather new to Markdown, though.

[ghost]

@DeeplyUncertain until a solution is added to vmd consider using shiba which offers internal linking between local markdown documents as well as internal hash links within a single document.

More info in the usage documentation.

Hopefully that helps you.