Link

The link feature lets you insert hyperlinks into your content and provides a UI to create and edit them. Thanks to the autolink plugin, typed or pasted URLs and email addresses automatically become working links.

Use the link toolbar button or press Ctrl/Cmd+K to create a new link. Clicking a link opens a contextual toolbar. The toolbar lets you edit existing links or unlink them with a click.

CKEditor 5 allows typing at the inner and outer link boundaries to make editing simpler for the users.

To type inside a link, move the caret to its (start or end) boundary. As long as the link remains highlighted (by default: blue), typing and applying formatting happens within its boundaries:

To type before or after a link, move the caret to its boundary, then press the Arrow key (← or →) away from the link once. The link stops from being highlighted, and whatever text you type or formatting apply will not be inside the link:

After installing the editor, add the feature to your plugin list and toolbar configuration:

import { ClassicEditor, AutoLink, Link } from 'ckeditor5';

ClassicEditor
	.create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
		licenseKey: '<YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>', // Or 'GPL'.
		plugins: [ Link, AutoLink, /* ... */ ],
		toolbar: [ 'link', /* ... */ ],
		link: {
			// Configuration.
		}
	} )
	.then( /* ... */ )
	.catch( /* ... */ );

const { ClassicEditor, AutoLink, Link } = CKEDITOR;

ClassicEditor
	.create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
		licenseKey: '<YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>',
		plugins: [ Link, AutoLink, /* ... */ ],
		toolbar: [ 'link', /* ... */ ],
		link: {
			// Configuration.
		}
	} )
	.then( /* ... */ )
	.catch( /* ... */ );

The link UI contains a contextual toolbar that appears when a link is selected. You can configure what items appear in this toolbar using the config.link.toolbar option.

The following toolbar items are available:

• 'linkPreview' – Shows a preview of the link URL that you can click to open the link in a new tab.
• 'editLink' – Opens a form to edit the link URL and options.
• 'linkProperties' – Opens a panel to configure link properties (manual decorators). Only available when at least one manual decorator is defined.
• 'unlink' – Removes the link.

By default, the link toolbar is configured as follows:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        link: {
            toolbar: [ 'linkPreview', '|', 'editLink', 'linkProperties', 'unlink' ]
        }
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

You can extend the link toolbar with custom items by registering them in the component factory and adding them to the toolbar configuration.

Here is an example of registering a custom component:

class MyCustomPlugin extends Plugin {
    init() {
        const editor = this.editor;

        editor.ui.componentFactory.add( 'myCustomLinkInfo', locale => {
            const button = new ButtonView( locale );
            const linkCommand = editor.commands.get( 'link' );

            button.bind( 'isEnabled' ).to( linkCommand, 'value', href => !!href );
            button.bind( 'label' ).to( linkCommand, 'value' );

            button.on( 'execute', () => {
                // Add your custom component logic here
            } );

            return button;
        } );
    }
}

Once registered, the component can be used in the toolbar configuration:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        plugins: [ MyCustomPlugin, /* ... */ ],
        link: {
            toolbar: [ 'myCustomLinkInfo', '|', 'editLink', 'unlink' ]
        }
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

By default, all links created in the editor have the href="..." attribute in the editor data. If you want your links to have additional link attributes, link decorators provide an easy way to configure and manage them.

There are two types of link decorators you can use:

• Automatic – They match links against predefined rules and manage their attributes based on the results.
• Manual – They allow users to control link attributes individually using the editor UI.

In the editor below, all external links get the target="_blank" and rel="noopener noreferrer" attributes (automatic decorator). Click a link and edit it to see that you can control the download attribute of specific links using the switch button in the editing balloon (manual decorator).

The following code runs this editor. Learn more about the configuration of the feature.

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            // Automatically add target="_blank" and rel="noopener noreferrer" to all external links.
            addTargetToExternalLinks: true,

            // Let the users control the "download" attribute of each link.
            decorators: [
                {
                    mode: 'manual',
                    label: 'Downloadable',
                    attributes: {
                        download: 'download'
                    }
                }
            ]
        }
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

You can configure decorators through definitions provided in the config.link.decorators configuration option.

Each decorator definition must have a unique name. For manual decorators, the name also represents the decorator in the document model.

A common use case for (automatic) link decorators is adding the target="_blank" and rel="noopener noreferrer" attributes to all external links in the document. A dedicated config.link.addTargetToExternalLinks configuration exists for that purpose. When you set this option to true, all links starting with http://, https://, or // are “decorated” with target and rel attributes.

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            addTargetToExternalLinks: true
        }
        // More of the editor's configuration.
            // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

Internally, this configuration corresponds to an automatic decorator with the following definition:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            decorators: {
                addTargetToExternalLinks: {
                    mode: 'automatic',
                    callback: url => /^(https?:)?\/\//.test( url ),
                    attributes: {
                        target: '_blank',
                        rel: 'noopener noreferrer'
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        // More of the editor's configuration.
            // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

If you want to leave the decision whether a link should open in a new tab to the users, do not use the config.link.addTargetToExternalLinks configuration. Define a new manual decorator with the following definition instead:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            decorators: {
                openInNewTab: {
                    mode: 'manual',
                    label: 'Open in a new tab',
                    attributes: {
                        target: '_blank',
                        rel: 'noopener noreferrer'
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        // More of the editor's configuration.
            // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

A default link protocol can be useful when the user forgets to type the full URL address to an external source or website. Sometimes copying the text, like for example ckeditor.com, and converting it to a link may cause some issues. As a result, the created link will direct you to yourdomain.com/ckeditor.com because of the missing protocol. This makes the link relative to the site where it appears.

After you enable the config.link.defaultProtocol configuration option, the link feature will be able to handle this issue for you. By default, it does not fix the passed link value, but when you set config.link.defaultProtocol to, for example, http://, the plugin will add the given protocol to every link that may need it (like ckeditor.com, example.com, etc. where [protocol://]example.com is missing).

See a basic configuration example:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            defaultProtocol: 'http://'
        }
        // More of the editor's configuration.
            // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

By default, a minimal set of protocols is allowed to be used in the links. Any URL with an unrecognized protocol will be changed to ‘#’. You can overwrite the list of protocols by using config.link.allowedProtocols.

See a configuration example:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            // You can use `s?` suffix like below to allow both `http` and `https` protocols at the same time.
            allowedProtocols: [ 'https?', 'tel', 'sms', 'sftp', 'smb', 'slack' ]
        }
        // More of the editor's configuration.
        // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

Automatic link decorators match all links in the editor content against a function which decides whether the link should receive some set of attributes, considering the URL (href) of the link. These decorators work silently and the editor applies them during the data downcast.

For instance, to create an automatic decorator that adds the download="file.pdf" attribute to all links ending with the ".pdf" extension, you should add the following definition to config.link.decorators:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            decorators: {
                detectDownloadable: {
                    mode: 'automatic',
                    callback: url => url.endsWith( '.pdf' ),
                    attributes: {
                        download: 'file.pdf'
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        // More of the editor's configuration.
        // ...
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

Manual link decorators are represented in the link editing balloon as switch buttons. The users can use them to control the presence of attributes of a particular link (check out the demo to learn more). Each manual decorator definition has a human-readable label displayed next to the switch button in the link editing balloon. Make sure it is compact and precise for the convenience of the users.

To configure a “Downloadable” switch button in the link editing balloon that adds the download="file" attribute to the link when turned on, add the following definition to config.link.decorators:

ClassicEditor
    .create( document.querySelector( '#editor' ), {
        // ... Other configuration options ...
        link: {
            decorators: {
                toggleDownloadable: {
                    mode: 'manual',
                    label: 'Downloadable',
                    attributes: {
                        download: 'file'
                    }
                },
                openInNewTab: {
                    mode: 'manual',
                    label: 'Open in a new tab',
                    defaultValue: true,			// This option will be selected by default.
                    attributes: {
                        target: '_blank',
                        rel: 'noopener noreferrer'
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    } )
    .then( /* ... */ )
    .catch( /* ... */ );

The AutoLink feature will automatically turn URLs or email addresses into working links.

To use the autolink function, press Space, Enter, or Shift+Enter after a link.

The link feature integrates with bookmarks, providing a smooth linking experience. Link providers allow adding predefined lists of links (similar to bookmarks). You can register any links you would like to use frequently in your content in the Link plugin using a custom method. These links will be available in the link UI form for easy access.

To define a list of links available in the link UI, you can use the getListItems() function in the link provider. Opening the group in the link UI calls the function every time. The function should return an array of objects, each representing a link.

The getItem() function can resolve the link. Opening the link preview or navigating to the link from the editing view calls the function. It should return an object with the href, icon, label, and tooltip parameters. The properties are assigned to the link preview. It is useful when only part of the list items are shown in the list view (for example, in pagination), and the user interacts with a link that is not visible in the list view but is available in the editing.

class SocialLinksPlugin extends Plugin {
    static get requires() {
        return [ Link ];
    }

    async init() {
        const linkUI = this.editor.plugins.get( LinkUI );

        linkUI.registerLinksListProvider( {
            label: 'Social links',
            getListItems: () => [
                {
                    id: 'facebook',
                    href: 'https://facebook.com',
                    label: 'Facebook',
                    icon: linkIcon
                },
                {
                    id: 'twitter',
                    href: 'https://twitter.com',
                    label: 'Twitter',
                    icon: linkIcon
                }
            ],

            // Optionally: You can customize your link preview by custom implementation of link getter.
            getItem: href => {
                return {
                    href,
                    icon: linkIcon,
                    label: 'My custom label in link preview',
                    tooltip: 'My custom tooltip in link preview'
                };
            }
        } );
    }
}

The Link plugin registers the UI button component ('link') and the following commands:

• The 'link' command implemented by LinkCommand.
• The 'unlink' command implemented by UnlinkCommand.

You can execute the commands using the editor.execute() method:

// Applies the link to the selected content.
// When the selection is collapsed, it creates new text wrapped in a link.
editor.execute( 'link', 'http://example.com' );

// If there are decorators configured, the command can set their state.
editor.execute( 'link', 'http://example.com', { linkIsExternal: true } );

// Removes the link from the selection (and all decorators if present).
editor.execute( 'unlink' );

The package provides a plugin for linking images. See the Linking images guide in the Images section.

Links are represented in the model using the linkHref attribute. Manual link decorators are represented in the model using text attributes corresponding to their names, as configured in config.link.decorators.

The source code of the feature is available on GitHub at https://github.com/ckeditor/ckeditor5/tree/master/packages/ckeditor5-link.