What is the external links module?

The External Links module is a very simple approach to adding icons to links to external websites or e-mail addresses. It is a purely JavaScript implementation, so the icons are only shown to users that have JavaScript enabled.

What features does the external links module offer?

• External links module offers applying icons to either mailto: or external links or both.
• You can configure external links to open in a new window.
• You can set a confirmation message when leaving the site.
• You can configure regular expression inclusion and exclusion of links considered external.

Steps to install and configure the external links module:

1.  Download the module from http://drupal.org/project/extlink.

2. Extract and copy the module directory to the sites/all/modules directory on your site.

3. Enable the module.

4. Configure the module settings at yourdomain.com/admin/settings/extlink.

5. In the configuration screen you can choose to apply icons to external links and mailto or one of them.

6. You can choose to configure external links in open in a new window and display a confirmation message when leaving the site.

7. You can use regular expressions to filter the links that will be considered external and those that will not.

8. Now if I create a link that points to something outside my site, external links module adds to it an icon.

Finally I can say that this module is a good module for making site interface more users friendly, you may also take a look at External Link Extras, which can expand the functionality of External Links.

I hope you enjoyed this Module Preview and stay tuned for more to come.

Botros Geris

Senior Drupal Developer, JesoX LLC