"Copy link address" for 🔗 share link popup?

[tophee (Christoph)]

Am I the only one who finds it a bit of a nuisance (given all the other luxuries on discourse) that there is no “copy” button on the -popup? It would be great to have, similar to copy invite link button.

[ChrisBeach (Chris)]

Great idea! Would save a lot of unnecessary clicks

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Copy to clipboard is not really supported on all browsers as of 1-2 years ago. Maybe that changed in latest versions. You can check if you are interested.

[tophee (Christoph)]

You can check if you are interested.

Do you mean I should find out if all browsers now support copy to clipboard?

Well, I’d simply say that if it’s possible for invite links (in August 2015), why not for any link?

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Feel free to do the research.

[sberkovitz (Steven Berkovitz)]

Quoting from http://stackoverflow.com/a/30810322/225495:

The JavaScript document.execCommand(‘copy’) support has grown, see the links below for browser updates:

• IE10+ (although this document indicates some support was there from IE5.5+).
• Google Chrome 43+ (~April 2015)
• Mozilla Firefox 41+ (shipping ~September 2015)
• Opera 29+ (based on Chromium 42, ~April 2015)

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Sure @techAPJ if this is working in all browsers now we could auto-copy the link when the share dialog is popped. Might even be useful on touch devices…

[watchmanmonitor (Allen Hancock)]

At this time, reply as a related topic is still hidden behind the share icon.

That’s the biggest reason I have to click on the link icon at the bottom of the post, and I’d rather not have my clipboard messed with, as it’s likely to have content I intend to use the reply I’m posting.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

Allen, as Spock once said to Kirk, and then in a 2009 reboot as Kirk said to Spock, “the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”.

[watchmanmonitor (Allen Hancock)]

I’m all for a copy function. That’s not the issue.

Moving the Reply as Linked topic out of the Share widget would be even better.

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

now we could auto-copy the link when the share dialog is popped

I’m with @watchmanmonitor, please don’t auto-copy…I’d be very disappointed if the contents in my clipboard were erased due to clicking a button (that doesn’t say or imply copy) on Discourse.

I’d much prefer an explicit button (à la bit.ly and other sites I cannot think of at the moment).

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

If we need a “button” then why not…

• see the link, press your right mouse “button” to copy it

• see the link. Tap and hold to copy it

… use the “button” that is already there?

[jomaxro (Joshua Rosenfeld)]

I could be wrong, but the way I interpreted the OP was a request for an explicit button. Essentially reducing the current 3 clicks to 2 clicks.

Both of your suggestions require three clicks: click share than either right click then left click, or hold then tap.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

You can always right click the timestamp at upper right to get the link to a post as well. That’s one “click”.

And tap-and-hold is just two “taps”, not three. Tap one, expand the share dialog, tap-and-hold on the link is two.

[joebuhlig]

I might be an edge case here but my tendency on desktop is to hit “#” and then enter (takes me to the top), cmd+L and then cmd+C. To me it’s a lot quicker to stay on the keyboard and skip the mouse entirely.

On mobile, I tap the time (just above the URL in the address bar) to get to the top, tap the timestamp of the post, tap/hold the link, and hit copy.

Both of those are when I’m trying to share the topic and not necessarily a post. When sharing a post I skip the process of getting to the top on both. It’s all the same at that point. But I should also point out that I don’t worry about the ?u=joebuhlig string at the end of the url either.

[tophee (Christoph)]

… use the “button” that is already there?

Which button are you referring to?

[watchmanmonitor (Allen Hancock)]

@codinghorror

… use the “button” that is already there?

I have an idea “the button” is the at the bottom of each post. I wonder if this mockup @tophee had in mind:

---

I went off on a tangent because this solution knocks the current “Reply” button out of the link box.

I feel it doesn’t really belong there anyway… I’m clicking "link to this article’ not “reply with quote”

@watchmanmonitor

Moving the Reply as Linked topic out of the Share widget would be even better.

I found the topic which is most relevant to my sidebar comment:

Menu toggle for different reply modes

Continuing the discussion from With the new right gutter, where should "Reply as Linked Topic" go?: This would also be useful for selecting a whisper type reply per the earlier mock-up in the original topic.

Solving the reply-as-linked-topic need would simplify the usage which is the heart of the current topic.

[codinghorror (Jeff Atwood)]

This just gets worse and worse. For such a small thing (seriously, count the actions saved here, it is at best one) it is a giant sandwich.

[tophee (Christoph)]

I wonder if this mockup @tophee had in mind:

screenshot_2177.png1668x682 99.3 KB

This is exactly what I had in mind. Thanks for visualizing it. I even agree that the “+ New Topic” is not particularly well placed (nor well-labelled), but whether or not to move it is unrelated to this topic (so whoever wants to discuss that, please use that button to do so).

[techAPJ (Arpit Jalan)]

@codinghorror

if this is working in all browsers now we could auto-copy the link when the share dialog is popped. Might even be useful on touch devices…

PR for it here:

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/4791

This feature is not supported on all browsers though. Here is the result from my testing on various OS:

Works on:

• Latest Safari on macOS
• Latest Chrome on macOS
• Latest Chromium on macOS
• IE11 on Windows 10
• Latest Chrome on Android 5
• Latest Safari on iOS 10

Does not work on:

• Latest Firefox on macOS
• Edge 14 on Windows 10