Well now I'm a little stumped and scratching my head on this one. I've checked the PopupMenuInfo.js file, and sure enough, for both apps where we are seeing the url forward vs new tab behavior, I see the code that (I was not expecting to see). Here's an extract from the file. Very strange. Any ideas? Thanks again for the help!
_getATagLabel: function() {
var url;
var label;
var itemLayerId = this._layerInfo._isItemLayer && this._layerInfo._isItemLayer();
var layerUrl = this._layerInfo.getUrl();
if (itemLayerId) {
url = portalUrlUtils.getItemDetailsPageUrl(
portalUrlUtils.getStandardPortalUrl(this.layerListWidget.appConfig.portalUrl),
itemLayerId);
label = this.nls.itemShowItemDetails;
} else if (layerUrl &&
(this._layerType === "CSVLayer" || this._layerType === "KMLLayer")) {
url = layerUrl;
label = this.nls.itemDownload;
} else if (layerUrl && this._layerType === "WMSLayer") {
url = layerUrl + (layerUrl.indexOf("?") > -1 ? "&" : "?") + "SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities";
label = this.nls.itemDesc;
} else if (layerUrl && this._layerType === "WFSLayer") {
url = layerUrl + (layerUrl.indexOf("?") > -1 ? "&" : "?") + "SERVICE=WFS&REQUEST=GetCapabilities";
label = this.nls.itemDesc;
} else if (layerUrl) {
url = layerUrl;
label = this.nls.itemDesc;
} else {
url = '';
label = this.nls.itemDesc;
}
return '<a class="menu-item-description" target="_blank" href="' +
url + '">' + label + '</a>';
},