General Link - Insert Javascript contains return false causes error

Question

When I tried to put a simple javascript inside the Insert Javascript of General Link it wasn't able to make it properly work as I noticed it appends a return false which causes an error.

The rendered markup is below.

<a href="javascript:onclick=alert("test");return false;" >Test</a>

Kindly help me on how I can resolve this or if there is a setting I need to do to make it work by default. Thanks.

Answer 1

Try to take a anchor with link "javascript:void(0)" and use the onclick field.

This will add a hashtag infront of "javascript:void(0)", which means that it ends up looking like this:

 <a href="#javascript:void(0); onclick="javascript:alert('test');">Test</a>

Answer 2

You cannot (easily) change this. The way to get a URL string from a General Link field is via the GetFriendlyUrl() method. It looks like this.

public string GetFriendlyUrl()
{
  return new LinkUrl().GetUrl(new XmlField(this.InnerField, string.Empty), this.InnerField.Database);
}

Inside the LinkUrl class, we find the GetJavaScriptUrl method, and as you can see - the behaviour with forcing return false; into the script is hard coded.

protected virtual string GetJavaScriptUrl(string url)
{
  Assert.ArgumentNotNull((object) url, nameof (url));
  if (!url.StartsWith("javascript:", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
    url = "javascript:" + url;
  return url + ";return false;";
}

So to do it, you would need to bypass this behaviour by making your own LinkUrl class and overriding this method.

public class MyLinkUrl : LinkUrl
{
    public override virtual string GetJavaScriptUrl(string url)
    {
        string b = base.GetJavaScriptUrl(url);
        return b.Replace(";return false;", ";");
    }
}

And then generate your link without using the method directly on LinkField;

return new MyLinkUrl().GetUrl(new XmlField(this.InnerField, string.Empty), this.InnerField.Database);

(code written directly in editor here, might have small syntax mishaps)