I created a page in APEX 5.1.2 with an interactive report of work orders. Two of the columns in the report are named WORK_ORDER_NUMBER and WORKORDERID. WORK_ORDER_NUMBER is the clerical reference number and WORKORDERID is a code used by an external third-party enterprise application. I created a link to the external application to allow the user to open the work order from the report. The properties for the WORK_ORDER_NUMBER link column are:
Type: Link
Target Type: URL
Target URL: http://appprd:8080/appname/ui/appname.jsp?event=loadapp&value=wotrack&uniqueid=#WORKORDERID#
Link Text: #WORK_ORDER_NUMBER#
This works okay except that it opens the work order in the same tab and the user cannot navigate back to the APEX application page. We have a work around which is to right-click the link and select ‘Open in new tab’ or ‘Open in new window’ menu option but this will require additional training and there is no guarantee the users will always remember this. Right-clicking and selecting either menu option generates a URL as follows:
http://appprd:8080/appname/ui/appname.jsp?event=loadapp&value=wotrack&uniqueid=51799863+target="_blank"
I tried setting the Target URL property to http://appprd:8080/appname/ui/appname.jsp?event=loadapp&value=wotrack&uniqueid=#WORKORDERID#+target="_blank" but this does not open a new tab or window. Something to consider is that the system always challenges the user with a Windows Security iexplore dialog to re-enter their credentials (i.e., user name and password). Could this Windows security dialog be interfering with opening a new page or window. Is there a way to automatically open a new tab or a new window when the user clicks the work order number link? If the Windows security dialog is interfering is there a technical work-around?