Javascript Event for "Open in new Tab"

Question

I have the following problem: I use Javascript onclick event to change href of a link. It works like a charm but only if user just clicks a link. If "Open in new tab" feature is used for the link - onclick event will not fire and href will never change. Is there any way to handle such an event? Perhaps with jQuery or some other JS Framework?

Example:

<a href="some_url" onclick="this.href = 'some_other_url'">Link</a>

Hebner

Use onmousedown or add oncontextmenu - for inspiration, see #8893769 ("How to capture links" - #8927708) – Josselyn

Answer 1

Try to change

<a href="some_url" onclick="this.href = 'some_other_url'">Link</a>

to

<a href="some_url" onmousedown="this.href = 'some_other_url'">Link</a>

Stoneblind

@FlexJack Did you actually get the "open link in new tab" option to open the some_other_url ? – Phago

It's worth noting that onmmousedown doesn't fire on mobile devices when the user tap-hold the link (to open in new tab). But it still fires when the user taps the link. – Numbat

Answer 2

Nowadays we can use pointerdown. It works for both mouse and finger touch.

From Pointer events docs:

Pointer events are DOM events that are fired for a pointing device. They are designed to create a single DOM event model to handle pointing input devices such as a mouse, pen/stylus or touch (such as one or more fingers).

Numbat