MkdocsExternalLinkProcessor

The MkdocsExternalLinkProcessor is an MkDocs plugin designed to enhance the handling of external links in your documentation. It allows you to add specific CSS classes, set the target attribute, and configure the rel attribute for external links.

Features

• Add Class to External Links: Automatically add a specified CSS class to all external links.
• Configure Link Target: Set the target attribute (e.g., _blank) to control how links open.
• Configure Link Rel Attribute: Set the rel attribute for external links for improved security and SEO.
• Custom Protocols: Extend the default list of protocols to include additional ones.

Installation

To install the plugin, include it in your MkDocs project by placing the mkdocs_external_link_processor.py file in your project and adding it to your mkdocs.yml configuration file.

1. Save the plugin file as mkdocs_external_link_processor.py.
2. Add the plugin to your mkdocs.yml configuration:

plugins:
  - mkdocs_external_link_processor

Configuration

You can configure the plugin by adding the following options to your mkdocs.yml:

plugins:
  - mkdocs_external_link_processor:
      class_name: 'external'                # Class name to add to external links
      link_target: '_blank'                 # Target attribute for links
      link_rel: ['noopener', 'noreferrer']  # Rel attribute for links
      additional_protocols: ['custom:']     # Additional protocols to consider as external

Configuration Options

• class_name: The CSS class to add to external links. Defaults to 'external'.
• link_target: The target attribute for links. Use '_blank' to open links in a new tab. Defaults to an empty string.
• link_rel: The rel attribute values to apply to links. Defaults to an empty list.
• additional_protocols: Additional protocols to consider as external links. Defaults to an empty list.

Usage

After configuring the plugin, it will automatically process the links in your documentation:

1. Add Class: All external links will have the specified class added.
2. Set Target: The target attribute will be set according to your configuration.
3. Set Rel: The rel attribute will be added to external links.

Example

Given the following HTML content:

<a href="https://example.com">Example</a>
<a href="mailto:contact@example.com">Contact</a>
<a href="custom:protocol">Custom Protocol</a>

With the configuration:

plugins:
  - mkdocs_external_link_processor:
      class_name: 'external'
      link_target: '_blank'
      link_rel: ['noopener', 'noreferrer']
      additional_protocols: ['custom:']

The resulting HTML will be:

<a href="https://example.com" class="external" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Example</a>
<a href="mailto:contact@example.com" class="external" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Contact</a>
<a href="custom:protocol" class="external" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Custom Protocol</a>

Development

To contribute to the development of this plugin, clone the repository and make your changes. Ensure that you have BeautifulSoup installed:

pip install beautifulsoup4

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License