Nice. I wonder if TextLink would be a better name, and more discoverable.

@guidezpl Thank you, I was hoping a better name would come to me! I'll change it to TextLink.

@guidezpl I went back and forth but I've currently got it named LinkedText. There is an inline version called InlineLinkedText. I'm still up for suggestions and might still change things around, though.

@guidezpl I went back and forth but I've currently got it named LinkedText. There is an inline version called InlineLinkedText. I'm still up for suggestions and might still change things around, though.

Ah I see now how this works on the entire text, that makes sense.

I don't think anything actually failed in the Google tests, but I've rerun them just in case.

I'm concerned that this PR makes it easier to make links but does not make them work on web, where links are most common and where not matching the platform is the most disruptive and where we have a solution for making links that have high fidelity with the core platform.

Would it make sense to make this a package instead? It does seem like functionality that does not need to be in the core framework, and our general policy is that we should put things in packages if possible. In particular, would it make sense to put this in url_launcher?

This works on web just like any other platform, unless I'm missing something. Is the concern with the need to use url_launcher?

Using LinkedText like this:

import 'package:url_launcher/url_launcher.dart';

...

LinkedText(
  text: 'example.com',
  onTapUri: (Uri uri) async {
    if (!await launchUrl(uri)) {
      throw 'Could not launch $uri';
    }
  },
),

What is the existing high fidelity solution? I assumed that people were using things like TextSpan.recognizer + url_launcher (see StackOverflow). Using TextSpan.recognizer is tricky due to needing to manually manage a TapGestureRecognizer.

My concern with putting this inside of url_launcher is that devs might want to do something other than launch a URL when tapped. Maybe do something in-app when a user taps on a username or something like that? I'm just guessing though.

I would definitely be down to move this to its own package if you think that's best.

if i right click on the link, do i get the browser's menu?

Yes, but no link options like "Open link in new tab". Do you know if we have a way to do that on the web now? Maybe this is a good opportunity to automatically wire that up for people if it's possible.

I believe the Link widget in url_opener does that. cc @yjbanov

Having it in url_opener wouldn't require that the developer use it to open a URL, it could still allow a callback. The idea would just be to default to the "right thing" for links.

(It looks like there's an ongoing discussion here and on discord. Please let me know when the PR is ready to reland and I'll get the g3fix CL ready).

Ah I see (Link docs). LinkedText does seem to work with Link on web and the other platforms (example below), but I would have to rethink this as part of url_launcher to make that super slick by default.

LinkedText.textLinkers(
  text: 'Hello https://www.example.com world.', // spans seem to work too.
  textLinkers: <TextLinker>[
    TextLinker(
      regExp: LinkedText.defaultUriRegExp,
      linkBuilder: (String displayString, String linkString) {
        return WidgetSpan(
          child: Link(
            uri: Uri.parse(linkString),
            builder: (BuildContext context, FollowLink? followLink) {
              return Text.rich(
                TextSpan(
                  style: const TextStyle(color: Colors.blue),
                  text: displayString,
                  // Omitting lifecycle management for this recognizer for brevity.
                  recognizer: TapGestureRecognizer()..onTap = followLink,
                ),
              );
            },
          ),
        );
      },
    ),
  ],
),

If that's the best option here then I'll probably have to revisit this in January when I return from leave.

Maybe it can just be part of material?
That way it's inside of a package, there's some justification for automatic styling and users won't have to go through the trouble of finding and installing the correct package on pub.

@benthillerkus I'm convinced that LinkedText needs to use url_launcher's Link class internally in order to be successful, in which case I can't put it in the framework without also bringing in url_launcher. So my plan is to land it inside of url_launcher (flutter/packages#5862). The reason I need url_launcher is that it's hard to build a good link on Flutter web without using url_launcher's Link (my attempt in this PR did not support right clicking => open in new tab).