New Module launched to open external URLs in new tabs in Drupal 7 websites

Did you know that the developers at Kellton Tech have contributed about 35 active modules to the Drupal community that have almost half a million downloads and over a million installs? In fact, contributing to Drupal community is nothing new to Kellton Tech, which has always encouraged its employees to be active members in the community and do their bit by giving back to it in terms of new innovations. 

This momentum has gained pace recently with many team members submitting fresh modules to the pool. Riding the same tide, a module that I have created recently is called ‘Update External Links’. This module basically updates the external URLs present in the body content and changes them to be opened in the new tab. Update External Links module works with Drupal 7 and can be used from the backend by having Admin access. One distinctive functionality of this module is that it does not end up loading script multiple times, thus saving a lot of loading time in the long run. 

Update External Links module works differently than External New Tab and External Links modules as it uses DOMDocument() and adds the target="_ blank" attribute to each external URL and the node is saved again after this. However, both External New Tab and External Links use jQuery to open link in new tab, which makes the script run every time the node is loaded. In case of Update External Links module, the script does not load every time, which saves substantial website loading time and makes the site more robust and effective.  

Please note that:
 

• Update External Links module works only with MySQL database at the moment.
   
• Backing up your existing data is highly recommended before using Update External Links module as this is a very powerful tool that operates directly on your database tables.

Installing Update External Links Module in your Drupal 7 website

Please follow these simple steps to install Update External Links module in your website:

1. Copy the whole "update_external_links" directory to your modules.
    
2. Enable the module.
    
3. Select required options in the form to suit your needs by admin/people/permissions.

For more information, please visit https://www.drupal.org/project/update_external_links/.