magento 1.9 open adminhtml menu external link in new browser tab

Question

I need to add a link in the admin menu to an external web that opens in a new browser tab.

So I developed a module, and this is its config.xml

<frontend>
    <routers>
      <crmlink>
        <use>standard</use>
        <args>
          <module>MySpace_Crmlink</module>
          <frontName>crmlink</frontName>
        </args>
      </crmlink>
    </routers>
</frontend>
<adminhtml>
    <menu>
        <customer translate="title" module="customer">
            <title>Customers</title>
            <sort_order>40</sort_order>
            <!-- action>adminhtml/customer/</action -->
            <children>
                <crmlink translate="title" module="crmlink">
                    <title>CRM link</title>
                    <action>crmlink</action>
                    <sort_order>1010</sort_order>
                </crmlink>
            </children>
         </customer>
    </menu>
</adminhtml>

And then, there is a controller:

<?php
class MySpace_Crmlink_IndexController extends Mage_Core_Controller_Front_Action
{
    public function indexAction()
    {
        $this->_redirectUrl('www.example.com');
    }
}

It is working fine, the link is displayed under customer menu, and it works, I'm redirected to the external page example.com, but I need to open it in a ned browser tab, and I can't do it from the controller.

Is there a way to open the external link in a new tab as a target="_blank"? I don't see a way to do it from the xml.

Answer 1

It seems that there is no way to achieve it with xml.

I see two possibilities :

1) In javascript : add js file in admin (by using the layout.xml of your own module). In this js file, add on event observer on the #nav a click. When a click event is triggered, check if the url match (with some this.attr('href') = 'what-ever-you-are-expecting') and use something like window.open('the-url-you-want', '_blank');

or

2) In php : rewrite the block class app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/Block/Page/Menu.php and modify the _buildMenuArray method. Change

if ($child->action) {
       $menuArr['url'] = $this->_url->getUrl((string)$child->action, array('_cache_secret_key' => true));
} else {
       $menuArr['url'] = '#';
       $menuArr['click'] = 'return false';
}

with something like

if ($child->action) {
   if((string)$child->action == 'your-action'){
          $menuArr['url'] = '#';
          $menuArr['click'] = 'window.open("the-url-you-want","_blank")';
   }
   else {
       $menuArr['url'] = $this->_url->getUrl((string)$child->action, array('_cache_secret_key' => true));
   }
} else {
       $menuArr['url'] = '#';
       $menuArr['click'] = 'return false';
}

Hope it helps.