Hyperlink behavior in Cascade Storymap not consistent

[KateNewell1]

I am noticing that when I create links to external webpages from text in the Cascade Storymap, it is not consistent on whether it opens in a new window or not.  We would like it to open in a new window, as if it opens in a current window you lose your place in the storymap.  Any ideas? Anyone else noticing this inconsistent behavior?

[OwenGeo]

Hi Kate -- Sorry you are having trouble with your Cascade. We've had one other report of a link opening in the same tab as a Cascade story, but so far we haven't been able to reproduce the issue to isolate the cause. Would you be able to please share some more information:

• How did you create the link?
  • using the Cascade formatting toolbar
  • copy/paste text (if so, what was the source?)
  • other?
• Where does the link appear in the story?
  • narrative section, narrative panel, caption, credits, ...
  • beginning/middle/end of a paragraph/section
• How is the text otherwise formatted?
  • h1, h2, block quote, or standard paragraph?
  • left, center, or right aligned?
  • text color?

If you could also share a link to a story where this is happening that also might help us track down what's going on.

[KateNewell1]

Hi Owen! Thanks for responding!

When we have noticed this, it has been in text(narrative) sections. 

We generally copy/paste the link direct from the url bar of another open tab. 

The text is standard paragraph, centered and we do have text colored (generally).

The first time I noticed it was when I added a second url link in the same narrative section.  The first link worked fine.  When I added the second link in the same narrative section, the second one did not open in a new window.  I had to move the second link to a new narrative section to make it function...so maybe adding the second link in the same section is what caused it? (see links in the Infill Housing Toolkit section).

We also encountered it when we added a narrative section that ONLY contained a url link (see link below the vacancy table).  The work around for that one was a bit sketchy...we copied the url and pasted it into the Cascade formatting toolbar.  In the formatting toolbar we had to go in and add a space and carriage return at the front of the url to simulate a "target=_blank" type format.  If we edit or open the formatting toolbar, the space/carriage return is lost and we have to remember to add it back in.  So, kinda cumbersome work-around.

The story map is here:cob.org/housingstats

The links are functioning right now because of the workarounds, but would be nice if links functioned consistently 

Thanks for taking a peek! 

[Anonymous User]

Was this ever resolved?  We are having the same issue with a Cascade Story Map as well.  Using Kate's suggestion, I tried to put the text with the hyperlink at the end of other text in the narrative section, and the link opens in a new tab.  However, if that text is by itself in a line of the narrative section, it opens in the same tab.  Our story map is here: https://mass-eoeea.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=259d5a19836a41b382cb8d25bb285cb9  

You will see in the first section (European Sea Squirt), the first hyperlink works and the second does not.  

[RupertEssinger]

Hi Samantha

Sorry about the issue. We didn't resolve this issue so far but I am hoping the workarounds above that Kate mentioned can help authors fix this if they have it. The links in your story are working OK for me at the moment.

Rupert

[Anonymous User]

Hi Rupert, 

Another coworker switched up the formatting so that the hyperlinks were no longer by themselves in a new line of text and that is working for us now.

Best,

Samantha

[Lake_Worth_BeachAdmin]

The short answer is: just add a target="_blank" attribute to your links (using html tags not copy/paste url text)

www.google.com now becomes: <a href ="www.google.com" target="_blank>link text</a>