Open footer block link in new tab/window

Question

I've customized one of the footer link blocks within Magento 2's Luma theme in the default.xml file (htdocs/app/design/frontend/Ouho/outwardhound/Magento_Theme/layout/default.xml) with an external link:

<block class="Magento\Framework\View\Element\Html\Link\Current" name="external-link">
  <arguments>
    <argument name="label" xsi:type="string">External Link Name</argument>
    <argument name="path" xsi:type="string">http://example.com</argument>
  </arguments>
</block>

My question is, how can I get this link to open within a new tab using the xml/block/argument structure? I've seen mention of using <aParams>target="_blank"</aParams> elsewhere but it doesn't seem to function no matter where i place it within the code here.

Answer 1

The following will allow you to open a link in a new window (tested in Magento 2.2.3). Note specifically the attributes argument:

    <referenceBlock name="footer_links">
        <block class="Magento\Framework\View\Element\Html\Link\Current" name="about-link" after="contact-us-link">
            <arguments>
                <argument name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">About Us</argument>
                <argument name="path" xsi:type="string">about</argument>
                <argument name="attributes" xsi:type="array">
                    <item name="target" xsi:type="string">_blank</item>
                </argument>
            </arguments>
        </block>
    </referenceBlock>

If, for example, we look at the _toHTML and getAttributesHTML() methods of the Magento\Framework\View\Element\Html\Link\Current class, we see how the attributes are appended to the link. Specifically:

private function getAttributesHtml()
{
    $attributesHtml = '';
    $attributes = $this->getAttributes();
    if ($attributes) {
        foreach ($attributes as $attribute => $value) {
            $attributesHtml .= ' ' . $attribute . '="' . $this->escapeHtml($value) . '"';
        }
    }

    return $attributesHtml;
}

So, the item name attribute and value turns into the <a> tag’s attribute and value, respectively.

Answer 2

Strictly speaking, not an answer to the original question, but after searching around I ended up here looking for a similar answer so I thought I'd drop this in case it's helpful for someone else.

This worked for me in Magento 2.4, in the header.panel:

    <arguments>
        <argument name="label" xsi:type="string" translate="true">External Link</argument>
        <argument name="path" xsi:type="string" translate="true">https://external.link</argument>
        <argument name="title" xsi:type="string" translate="true">Visit external.link!</argument>
        <argument name="target" xsi:type="string">_blank</argument>
    </arguments>

Output:

<a href="https://external.link" title="Visit external.link!" target="_blank" id="idtgk9TxM0">External Link</a>