org-mode export to html fails for unknown link types - telephone links

org-mode export to html fails for unknown link types - telephone links

[Eugen Stan]

Hi,

I am building my wedding page with org mode. Yay!.
I tried to add telephone links so people can click on the link and it 
will do something useful.

I used this markup [[tel:(+40)55-555-555][(+40)55-555-555]] to produce 
something like <a href="tel:(+40)55-555-555">(+40)55-555-555</a> .

However It failed because the tel: is not recognized link.
I believe the default behavior of failing to export when encountering an 
unknown link type is not ok.

IMO org-mode export should allow export for unknown links.
Support for tel: links might be added to org-mode by default since it is 
simple to add and quite useful, at least in HTML export .
See https://css-tricks.com/the-current-state-of-telephone-links/ .

It seems it might work in PDF exports as well 
https://community.adobe.com/t5/acrobat-reader-discussions/how-to-make-clickable-phone-numbers-in-pdfs/m-p/5822600 
.

Regardless, having the export fail is a bug IMO.


To build my website I followed a slightly updated version of 
https://systemcrafters.net/publishing-websites-with-org-mode/building-the-site/ 
.

I made it work with some customization but I do believe the default

(require 'ox-publish)
(require 'ol)

(org-link-set-parameters "tel"
                          :export #'org-tel-export)

(defun org-tel-export (link description format _)
   "Export a tel link from Org files."
   (let ((path link)
         (desc (or description link)))
     (pcase format
       (`html (format "<a class=\"org-tel-href\" href=\"tel:%s\">%s</a>" 
path desc))
       (`latex (format "\\href{%s}{%s}" path desc))
       (`texinfo (format "@uref{%s,%s}" path desc))
       (`ascii (format "%s (%s)" desc path))
       (t path))))

(setq org-publish-project-alist
       `(("nunta-org-site"
          :recursive t
  ...... )

(org-publish-all t)

Re: org-mode export to html fails for unknown link types - telephone links

[Ihor Radchenko]

Eugen Stan <eugen@ieugen.ro> writes:

> I am building my wedding page with org mode. Yay!.
> I tried to add telephone links so people can click on the link and it 
> will do something useful.
>
> I used this markup [[tel:(+40)55-555-555][(+40)55-555-555]] to produce 
> something like <a href="tel:(+40)55-555-555">(+40)55-555-555</a> .
>
> However It failed because the tel: is not recognized link.

It is not what is happening.
[[arbitrary text not matching known link type]] links are treated as
fuzzy links searching within current buffer. See 4.2 Internal Links
section of Org manual.

So, Org tries to search for tel:... targets and named elements in
current buffer, fails to do so, and reports that the link is broken to
the user.

> I believe the default behavior of failing to export when encountering an 
> unknown link type is not ok.

I hope it is clear now that it is not unknown link type. There is no
such notion in Org as a link with unknown link type.

> Support for tel: links might be added to org-mode by default since it is 
> simple to add and quite useful, at least in HTML export .
> See https://css-tricks.com/the-current-state-of-telephone-links/ .

Agree. Patches welcome!

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
Org mode contributor,
Learn more about Org mode at <https://orgmode.org/>.
Support Org development at <https://liberapay.com/org-mode>,
or support my work at <https://liberapay.com/yantar92>