Embeds: Handle deeply nested links in the embed click handler by itzmekhokan · Pull Request #13244 · WordPress/wordpress-develop

itzmekhokan · 2026-08-24T02:44:19Z

Clicking a link in a post embed opens it inside the embed iframe instead of the parent window when the link text is wrapped more than one element deep, for example <a href="...">Link text</a>.

linkClickHandler() in src/js/_enqueues/lib/embed-template.js read href from the click target and, failing that, from its immediate parent only, so anything nested deeper resolved to no href. It now uses closest( '[href]' ) to walk the full ancestor chain, keeping the same attribute semantics.

The change is strictly widening — direct and single-level-nested links resolve exactly as before — and it also removes a TypeError thrown when the click target has no parent element.

Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/65947

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Tool(s): Claude Code
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Used for: Diagnosing the DOM traversal bug, drafting the fix, and verifying link resolution against a real DOM. All changes were reviewed and validated by me.

This Pull Request is for code review only. Please keep all other discussion in the Trac ticket. Do not merge this Pull Request. See GitHub Pull Requests for Code Review in the Core Handbook for more details.

The click handler in the embed template only looked for an `href` on the event target and its immediate parent, so link text wrapped more than one element deep resolved to no href and the link opened inside the embed iframe instead of the parent window. Use `closest( '[href]' )` to walk the full ancestor chain instead. This also removes a `TypeError` thrown when the click target has no parent element. Fixes #65947.

github-actions · 2026-08-24T02:44:28Z

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Core Committers: Use this line as a base for the props when committing in SVN:

Props khokansardar, peterwilsoncc, westonruter.

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github-actions · 2026-08-24T02:47:22Z

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peterwilsoncc

Thanks for the pull request, this looks good to me.

I've tested various scenarios using jsbin and your updated code will behave as expected.

westonruter · 2026-08-26T18:12:56Z

-				href = target.parentElement.getAttribute( 'href' );
-			}
+			var link = e.target.closest( '[href]' ),
+				href = link ? link.getAttribute( 'href' ) : null;


It would be preferable to have actually use the href property here:

Suggested change

href = link ? link.getAttribute( 'href' ) : null;

href = link ? link.href : null;

This is because .getAttribute( 'href' ) returns the HTML attribute contents verbatim, whereas the .href DOM property is parsed to be the actual absolute URL. This is important if there is a tag like <a href="/">Go home</a>:

link.getAttribute('href') returns "/"

link.href returns "https://example.com/"

See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/HTMLAnchorElement/href
and https://jakearchibald.com/2024/attributes-vs-properties/

This is especially important here in a cross-origin context!

Alternatively:

Suggested change

href = link ? link.getAttribute( 'href' ) : null;

href = link?.href;

Thanks @westonruter — applied.

Also fixes a second bug: wp-embed.js calls new URL( data.value ) with no base, which throws on a relative href — and preventDefault() has already run, so the click silently dead-ends.

Used a ternary rather than link?.href (file isn't transpiled, ES5 throughout), plus a type guard — closest( '[href]' ) can match an SVG <a>, whose href is an SVGAnimatedString that postMessage can't clone:

href = link && 'string' === typeof link.href ? link.href : null;

Note href="" and href="#foo" now navigate to the ?embed=true URL instead of dead-ending — can skip fragment-only values if you prefer.

Used a ternary rather than link?.href (file isn't transpiled, ES5 throughout), plus a type guard — closest( '[href]' ) can match an SVG <a>, whose href is an SVGAnimatedString that postMessage can't clone:

We don't need to transpile this. We can use optional chaining.

It is supported in all browsers supported by WP: https://caniuse.com/mdn-javascript_operators_optional_chaining

It is used in non-transpiled files in core now. For example:

wordpress-develop/src/js/_enqueues/wp/code-editor.js

Line 203 in c72064d

let options = settings.codemirror?.lint ?? false;

Switched to optional chaining, thanks. Kept the typeof check since it guards a different case than the null-check

The href DOM property resolves to an absolute URL against the embed document, which the parent window requires. Reading the attribute returned the value verbatim, so a relative link threw in the parent's `new URL()` call and the click dead-ended after `preventDefault()`. Elements whose href is not a string, such as SVG anchors, are skipped.

Optional chaining is supported in every browser WordPress supports and is already used in non-transpiled core files, so the explicit ternary guard against a missing link is unnecessary. The string type check remains, so elements whose href is not a string, such as SVG anchors, are still skipped.

Update `linkClickHandler()` to follow links with nested sub elements within the `_top` window, for example `<a href="http://wordpress.org">WordPress></a>`. Previously the link handler only handled links with single nested elements, links further nested would open within the iframe. Developed in #13244. Props khokansardar, swissspidy, westonruter. Fixes #65947. git-svn-id: https://develop.svn.wordpress.org/trunk@63400 602fd350-edb4-49c9-b593-d223f7449a82

github-actions · 2026-08-30T22:32:16Z

A commit was made that fixes the Trac ticket referenced in the description of this pull request.

SVN changeset: 63400
GitHub commit: f819b4a

This PR will be closed, but please confirm the accuracy of this and reopen if there is more work to be done.

Update `linkClickHandler()` to follow links with nested sub elements within the `_top` window, for example `<a href="http://wordpress.org">WordPress></a>`. Previously the link handler only handled links with single nested elements, links further nested would open within the iframe. Developed in WordPress/wordpress-develop#13244. Props khokansardar, swissspidy, westonruter. Fixes #65947. Built from https://develop.svn.wordpress.org/trunk@63400 git-svn-id: http://core.svn.wordpress.org/trunk@62593 1a063a9b-81f0-0310-95a4-ce76da25c4cd

peterwilsoncc approved these changes Aug 24, 2026

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westonruter reviewed Aug 26, 2026

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itzmekhokan added 2 commits August 27, 2026 17:57

westonruter approved these changes Aug 28, 2026

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github-actions Bot closed this Aug 30, 2026

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Embeds: Handle deeply nested links in the embed click handler - #13244

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	href = link ? link.getAttribute( 'href' ) : null;
	href = link ? link.href : null;

	href = link ? link.getAttribute( 'href' ) : null;
	href = link?.href;

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