fluentui-apple/Docs/macOS/Controls/Link.md

Link

Overview

With a Link, users can navigate to an external URL, or be overridden to perform a custom action. A link can be set to have an underline when the mouse hovers over it, or remove the underline completely to reduce visual clutter.

A Link is the lightest weight clickable control, and is often used to reduce the visual complexity of a design.

Best Practices

Do

• Use to navigate to an external URL, or open a help page
• Make Links discoverable by visual inspection alone. Users shouldn't have to interact with your program to find links.
• Use Links that give specific descriptive information about the result of clicking on the link, using as much text as necessary. Users should be able to - accurately predict the result of a link from its link text.

Don't

• Use a link where a button would be better suited. Links should be used to navigate to webpages. For most other actions (e.g navigation internal to your app), a button is better suited than a link with an overridden action.
• Use if the action is destructive or irreversible. Because users associate links with navigation (and the ability to back out), Links aren't appropriate for commands with significant consequences.

Usage

// Given a title and URL, `Link` will by default open the URL in a web browser.
let link = Link(title: "Link", url: NSURL(string: "https://github.com/microsoft/fluentui-apple")!)

// Link can also display an underline when a mouse hovers over it with the optional property "showsUnderlineWhileMouseInside".
let link = Link(title: "Link  with hover effects", url: NSURL(string: "https://github.com/microsoft/fluentui-apple")!)
link.showsUnderlineWhileMouseInside = true

// Because Link is a subclass of NSControl, we can override the target/action to perform a custom task
let link = Link(title: "Link with overridden Target/Action")
link.showsUnderlineWhileMouseInside = true
link.target = self
link.action = #selector(displayAlert)

@objc private func displayAlert() {
    let alert = NSAlert()
    alert.messageText = "Alert"
    alert.informativeText = "This is an alert generated by a Link with an overridden Target/Action"
    alert.runModal()
}

Implementation

Control Name

Link in Swift, MSFLink in Objective-C

Source Code

Link.swift

Sample Code

TestLinkViewController.swift