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Improve linking to headers in same article to prevent page refresh
Posted Feb 28, 2024
In the Zendesk editor, you can create a link to a header in the same article using the Add Link tool -> Heading tab and selecting a heading. When you do this, the link it generates looks like this:
<a href="/hc/en-us/articles/01234567890123#h_01HQNVYWBJY1978ERP3AAJN4Z2">Jump to header</a>
This is an issue because the live article URL is different from the URL created by the header link. The live article URL adds the article title, like this:
hc/en-us/articles/01234567890123-Article-title-here
Because the link does not match the live article URL, when you click the header link, the browser reloads the page, which is unnecesary and hurts the experience for the reader. Same-page hyperlinks should be an instant jump, no refresh needed.
Furthermore, to link to a header on the same page, only this portion of the URL is needed. The rest of the URL is not necessary:
<a href="#h_01HQNVYWBJY1978ERP3AAJN4Z2">Jump to header</a>
Ideally, clicking on a link to a different section of the same article would be an instant jump without reloading the page. So, it would be nice if the Zendesk article editor constructed the heading link so that there is no page refresh. It seems the simplest way to do this would be to have the Add Link -> Heading tool only include the header ID in the URL as shown above.
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5 comments
Shawna James
Thank you for taking the time to provide us with your feedback. This has been logged for our PM team to review, and for future reference, here’s our product feedback template. This template has been designed by community members and PM's to help users provide the most accurate details for their feature request so that we can better understand your use case and needs. You do not need to update your post now but we would appreciate it in the future if you could utilize the template.
For others who may be interested in this feature request, please add your support by upvoting this post and/or adding your use case to the comments below. Thank you again!
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Peter Cimring
Thanks for this clear and detailed post, Ryan
I just hit the same issue, and this thread was really helpful.
Manually editing the link to include just the URL fragment seems to work:
<a href="#h_01HQNVYWBJY1978ERP3AAJN4Z2">Jump to header</a>
Naturally, Zendesk should take care of all this seamlessly. So - I hereby upvote this issue :)
Cheers
PS: Shawna - here are our use cases:
a) Avoid a completely unnecessary round trip to the server - with the accompanying delay and ‘friction’ to the user. This does not occur before publishing - no reason why it should occur afterward.
b) The page reload also causes any custom widgets on the page (e.g. an HTML dropdown list) to lose state. This had me scratching my head, until I came across this post.
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sarmad
This is a well-observed issue. The unnecessary page reload caused by the full URL in same-page header links in Zendesk significantly impacts user experience. To improve this, Zendesk should adjust the Add Link -> Heading tool to only use the header ID portion of the URL, ensuring an instant jump to the header without reloading the page. This small change could greatly enhance navigation efficiency and overall user satisfaction.
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Shawna James
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sarmad ali
Hi there,
You've highlighted a critical issue with the Zendesk editor’s handling of same-page hyperlinks. Ensuring that these links result in an instant jump without reloading the page is essential for maintaining a smooth user experience.
To resolve this, you can manually edit the generated link to include only the header ID, which prevents the unnecessary page reload. Here’s how you can do it:
Current Generated Link:
html
Copy code
<a href="/hc/en-us/articles/01234567890123#h_01HQNVYWBJY1978ERP3AAJN4Z2">Jump to header</a>
Optimized Link:
html
Copy code
<a href="#h_01HQNVYWBJY1978ERP3AAJN4Z2">Jump to header</a>
This approach ensures that clicking the link will instantly jump to the desired section without reloading the page. It's a simple yet effective solution to improve the reader’s experience.
It would be great if the Zendesk team could update the Add Link -> Heading tool to automatically generate the link in this optimized format. This change would save users from manually editing the links and ensure a more seamless navigation within articles.
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