Pasting a hyperlink from the clipboard

#1

One of the few convenient things about the much-maligned Google Product Forum was the ability to paste an entire hyperlink into a post, complete with formatted anchor text and the associated url, in one operation.

In our Discourse forum, however, copying a hyperlink from another page is a two-step process: first copy and paste the anchor text, then go back and copy the url and paste it into the hyperlink definition text box for the anchor text.

Any way to make copying hyperlinks easier? Am I missing something?

-Gully

#2

For inter-forum links it is usually preferred to use the Share link provided when you click the “chain” button.
(They appear beneath each post and at the bottom of a topic, so you can point someone to a specific reply within a thread, or the whole topic.)

For extra-forum links, such as links into the User Guides, I have been doing the same 2 step shuffle.

I find myself (more and more) using the
[link text in here](url goes here) markdown format
more than the ol’ bbCode [url=url]link text[/url] format, because it is easier for pasting using the 2 step process.

It would be nice to have “autolinks” for Discourse.

Similar to what happens when you type an @ or : symbol.

We already have a personal bookmarks list (for bookmarking posts and topics.)
It would be nice if when we type, say # symbol, a popup bookmark insertion list appears.

Since we have already entered links, and will do so again, it would be nice if Discourse collected each person’s links as they publish them, and then later when they are entering a link, ie they type a [ which indicates they’re making a link, a popup menulist of their previous links appears, which they can choose from. (This would encourage good categorical naming of links you would wish to reuse later.) Perhaps even a manager via the profile pages, where the list can be cleaned up manually removing miscellaneous or one time links that we do not want on our popup menus. (or perhaps a special link input mode, ie ![ begins a new reusable link I would want saved into my links list. Discourse would strip off the leading ! when the post was published.)

#3

Well I realized that # begining a line is a header font, ie;

I am a header

… as if we need type that large!

So lets say when we type !# it means we want to insert a bookmarked link.
(I identify with the # character because it is the anchor character from URLs.)

#4

Sounds like a good browser extension.

#5

Well I disagree, because the bookmarks are in the forum’s internal dB. And I really do not have time right now to learn the Discourse API, even if it may be accessible to browser extensions.

But yea, have done a lot with browser extensions in the past.

#6

I wasn’t suggesting you do anything. I meant there are existing browser extensions which allow you to copy links and paste them as markdown links. I was a bit vague.

copy as markdown extension - Google Search

#7

Thanks Jim, I’ll look at that. Anything would be better than nothing, as it is now. At least until something is integrated into Discourse.

It might be nice if all the Sages and Admins shared a dB of links into the User Guides and so forth. A common browser extension for Chrome and FireFox might be the ticket.

EDIT: Trying out this one:
Copy as Markdown - Chrome Web Store
Hey it works :wink:

#8

Yes this one above works well with Chrome or clones like Comodo Dragon.

Testing the browser plugin with a link from the SketchUp User Guide navigation tree:
1 - triple click to highlight the link text,
2 - right-click and choose the plugin’s “Copy as Markdown” feature,
3 - and switch to this tab and then CTRL+V to paste in here:
Exporting an Animation

Works but, there is no memory so the link can’t be re-chosen and pasted again quickly in the future.
For now, not a big issue because the Guides are in the midst of a total rewrite.

Now to test pasting from my forum bookmarks list to this post:
Early Adopters (of New OS Versions) Be Cautious
Yup! That works as well.