HTML links open records with a matching URL - and that's not obvious

DEVONthink Feedback
1

In HTML records clicking links that point to websites does not open the linked URL if there’s a record with the same URL in the database.

Instead DEVONthink opens the record - without any feedback that the user is possibly viewing outdated content.

I read a thread where this DEVONthink behavior was mentioned, but reading the thread back then I thought this only applied to websites that were downloaded via DEVONthink’s download manager:

Over here this also happens with a link pasted into a fresh HTML page (menu Data > New > HTML Page).

So links in all HTML pages are currently behaving like automatic WikiLinks (which could possibly be handy) but there’s no information about this in the help and there’s nothing in the UI that tells me that I’m not viewing a loaded URL but a record’s content - or I didn’t find it.

Is this expected behavior?

2

there’s nothing in the UI that tells me that I’m not viewing a loaded URL but a record’s content

  1. A link to an external web page, i.e., no item with the clicked URL exists in the current database, wouldn’t open in DEVONthink.
  2. The Info inspector or popover would show what you’re looking at.

Whether it’s expected would be up to @cgrunenberg to respond to.

3

I copied your post’s URL as hyperlink and pasted it into the rendered view of a new HTML page.

Resulting source:

<html><head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body style="margin: 1.5em; font-family: SFProText-Regular, &quot;SF Pro Text&quot;; font-size: 14px; word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/html-links-open-records-with-a-matching-url-and-thats-not-obvious/64992/2">HTML links open records with a matching URL - and that's not obvious - DEVONthink / Feedback - DEVONtechnologies Community</a></p>

</body></html>

Clicking the link (whose URL is not in the database) opens it in the current DEVONthink tab.
Am I missing something?

4

Close the tab with this post and try clicking it again. What happens?

5

Not sure what you mean, I guess you think I’m reading this thread from inside DEVONthink but I don’t. I closed the tab that showed the HTML page and after clicking the link showed the post. I opened the HTML page again, clicked the link and it again opened in the current DEVONthink tab.

6

Do you have Preferences > General > Click on links opens them externally disabled?

7

That’s it! :slight_smile:

If that preference is disabled and the inspector is not visible then there’s no way to tell whether I’m viewing a loaded URL or a record’s content.

8

It’s intentional indeed.

9

Glad to hear it :slight_smile: