Reference-style links not parsed correctly in Editing mode

Bug graveyard
1

Steps to reproduce

Create a new note called ‘Test’ with the following content:

[link][1]

[1]: https://www.google.com

While still in Editing mode, Ctrl click the link. A new note with the name ‘[’ is created.

Go back to the note ‘Test’, switch to Reading mode and click the link. It correctly opens the browser on google.com.

Expected result

Ctrl clicking the link while on Editing mode should correctly open the browser on google.com.

Actual result

A new note named ‘[’ is created.

Environment

  • Operating system: Fedora Linux 35
  • Debug info:
SYSTEM INFO:
	Obsidian version: v0.14.6
	Installer version: v0.14.6
	Operating system: #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Apr 13 22:09:20 UTC 2022 5.16.20-200.fc35.x86_64
	Login status: not logged in
	Insider build toggle: off
	Live preview: off
	Legacy editor: off
	Base theme: dark
	Community theme: none
	Snippets enabled: 0
	Safe mode: on

RECOMMENDATIONS:
	none

Additional information

2

If you search the forum with reference links or reference-style links, what do you find?

3

Searching in the bug reports didn’t wield any matches, which is what I did before submitting the report. However, widening the scope to feature requests did locate this past bug report that got moved by you to be a feature request.

This is clearly a bug, however, and not a missing feature. Not only is the behavior of following a link inconsistent between the “Editing” and “Reading” views, but clicking the link on the former has the completely unexpected, not to mention unwanted, side effect of creating a note with the title [.

4

ok thanks. A bug is something that is implemented and doesn’t work. this hasn’t been implemented at all.

5

I’m sorry, that’s just plain wrong. A bug arises from an unexpected or incorrect result in the usage of the software.

If this is the expected result of clicking on a link while in “Editing” mode, can you please point me to the section on https://help.obsidian.md where this behavior is documented?

6

We are gonna have to respectfully disagree and move on.
There are several other parts of Live Preview that aren’t complete.

Categorizing as a bug or as a feature request will have no implact on when it’s implemented.

7

This behavior is also present on the legacy editor, it isn’t specific to the Live Preview.

And regardless of when it’s implemented, simply disallowing following reference-style links from the “Editing” mode would prevent the unexpected behavior of creating a new [ note, which is the worst part of this behavior.