Self Service Markdown links - how to make them open in a default browser

[mm2270]

Does anyone have a tip on how to make a Markdown link within a Mac Self Service.app description open in the user's default browser instead of within Self Service.app?
I can add links easy enough using standard Markdown syntax, but the issue is that they always default to opening directly within Self Service. The reason this is an issue is that Self Service sadly is not really a full blown browser. Some links tend to crash it completely when trying to open the link instead of just handling it in a more graceful way. Markdown, I found, does not have built in syntax to open a URL in another window or another browser.
I tried including standard html code to open a link in a new target, but the Self Service application doesn't recognize it at all (I assume because its not Markdown), so it just shows up as code instead of a link the user can click.

So, my question is, is there any way to do this, or not? It seems like its not possible, but I'm hoping someone has run across this and has a solution.

Thanks.

[Tigerhaven]

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/discussion.html?id=17080

[mm2270]

Thanks @Tigerhaven Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the same issue.

For one, we're still on JSS 9.73, not 9.8
Two, I'm not encountering a crash when running the actual policy. It crashes just clicking on a browser link I've included within the Self Service description. For example, in putting together a test SS policy to install the Office 2016 suite, I included the following link in the description using Markdown, so if any users wanted to learn more about the new version they can go there from the SS policy.
https://products.office.com/en-us/mac/latest-office-for-mac

But when this is clicked in the description from Self Service that comes up, it tries to load this page directly within Self Service itself, and it crashes. I can't make the link open anywhere else it seems, which is annoying. It looks like its just hardcoded to open in the Self Service.app always. I'm just looking for some way to force it to open in a new full browser window.

I'll keep searching around for a solution, but if anyone has any insight on this, I'd love to hear about it.

[davidhiggs]

holler if you find a solution, i dont think it's possible. doesn't seem like safari handles url schemes, so unless you're scripting, markdown isn't much help :/

[5kinner]

Hey @mm2270

Did you manage to find a solution? We would love to do exactly the same here.

[mm2270]

@5kinner No, I never did, and basically gave up trying to make it work. More flexibility in how markdown is used and/or how links are handled from within Self Service would be great. I never put in a feature request for that, but I may do so in the future.

[5kinner]

Thanks for letting me know!

[bpavlov]

https://jamfnation.jamfsoftware.com/featureRequest.html?id=4312