Is there a way to disable inline links (Bug report SmartLinks applying to all links?)

[Bill_P]

@Jonno Katahanas any update on an option to disable this, at least for URLs that are not in your list:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/Smart-Links-a-richer-way-to-hyperlink/ba-p/1412786?utm_source=atlcomm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=immediate_general_comment&utm_content=topic

[Maarten Kuiper]

Would really like to be able to turn this off for all projects or at least on a per-project basis in Jira Cloud.

[Kevin Boyd]

Plus 1. This situation feels so un-Atlassian to me. Way off-brand. Your "helping" us has harmed us. Please provide a disable capability for this feature. 

[thinhnk]

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stackoverflow-jira-extern/omobkjbchckaocdkcbeapemooohjgbnk

Install this extension will help you resolve issue

[Ed Gass]

Our IT controls all extensions, so cannot add. Plus this would only be a band-aid, Atlassian needs to resolve this issue.

[Andrew Kendris]

Hello @Bill_P  - I might need a bit more context behind where you are putting these inline links but I'm guessing you are referring to URLs you put into comments.  It's possible to change the how the links are shown by clicking on the link in the edit window and using the "Display URL" format rather than "Display inline" option.  

I hope this helps and please let me know if we need to dig deeper to get your question answered.

[Bill_P]

Mostly they are links to our SAAS product or references to related documentation to help support resolving the Jira tickets.

Yes, this is true that I can go to everything link that i come across and fix them as I go which is what I am doing now. Its a pain.

Why was this "feature" introduced how do it help anyone? What problem is it solving?

It seems the only problem it solves is making external links "prettier", but hard to use.

I do understand why you have it for internal Jira links as it adds the status which is useful but external links?

[Embher Chaffin]

Is there a way to set a standard to "Display URL" for non-Atlassian URLs?

For our team's specific needs, URLs being visible are critical for the testing and migration team. We need to be able to see the specific site we are pulling from. Just today, I had to take an extra 2 minutes to update all the URLs that were not displayed and click display URL on the ticket. 

Based on security within our sites, no information is brought back. Just the company logo and the "Portal Sign On". Often times these links have to be copied and pasted into separate tickets for other reasons.

I have no doubt this is an enhancement for some clients, but I'd love the ability to override the default of "Display inline" with "Display URL".

[Andrew Kendris]

Hello @Bill_P and @Embher Chaffin - after doing some digging it appears it's not possible to turn off this feature yet.  I have found an open support ticket for your awareness and tracking:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-72429?attachmentViewMode=gallery

I hope this gives a bit more clarity into the current state of Smart Link behavior for you.

[Bill_P]

This seems like it started more recently then that ticket (06/Jul/2019 ), I wonder if it is a newer bug introduced? 

@Andrew Kendris Did you have any luck finding out:

1. Why was this "feature" introduced for unknown external links?

2. What problem is it solving?

[Ed Gass]

Agreed, I need to see the the URL in full and it is a pain to have to click into the comment and always have to change the link to Display URL. This is a fairly recent thing with Display Inline being the norm.

Please give us the option in out settings to choose how links are always displaying.

[Margot Sloof]

Agree - this is a very frustrating feature. It's a pain to have to go and change every individual URL. Please fix this asap, it's not helping your users.

[Kimmo]

Yes. We also discuss a lot about domains in Jira which makes the problem a lot worse:

1. I write a domain (e.g. www.example.com)
2. Jira converts the domain into a link automatically (not really needed but fine, what ever)
3. This new feature "prettifies" the link into an unrecognizable blob
4. I click the blob and select "Disply URL"
5. I get a URL, not a domain

So, Jira does not allow me to express the thing I want. I think the only way to work around this is by marking all domains as code but that's just stupid.

Please, do something about this!

[Andrew Kendris]

Hello @Bill_P 

I couldn't locate why this feature is introduced for unknown external links.  I've done some digging in the community and may have found two useful articles that provide more context on Smart Links: 

Smart Links, a richer way to hyperlink (June 30, 2020) 

Loads of awesome new Smart Links now available in Confluence, Jira, and Trello (March 4, 2021) 

There are some comments in the June 30, 2020 thread that offer workarounds which may be helpful to you and other users.

[Kimmo]

Disabling this behavior for unknown external links is the right thing to do but there has to be a way to turn this feature off completely. Not only does this feature make authoring content in Jira a lot harder, it also hides the URLs making the user more susceptible to link manipulation and phishing attacks.

Also, using clipboard to copy content with links set to use the default "Display Inline" mode does not work. The links get dropped in the process. This feature is bad and it really frustrates our entire company.

[Bill_P]

Fully Agreed, not only frustrating but also a phishing security risk.

[Bill_P]

@Andrew Kendris If there is no reference to making all links into "Smartlinks" and in consideration of Phishing Security issues.

Does this not make this a bug?

It seems like it should only affect known URLs on the "List" (at least for the security concern)?

The List based on (https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/Smart-Links-a-richer-way-to-hyperlink/ba-p/1412786 and https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-articles/Loads-of-awesome-new-Smart-Links-now-available-in-Confluence/ba-p/1621121):

Adobe XD
Amazon Docs
Asana
Bitbucket
Box
Calendly
Confluence
Dropbox
Facebook
Figma
Github
Gitlab
Google Drive
Instagram
Invision
Jira
Jira Roadmaps
LinkedIn
Loom
Medium
Microsoft OneDrive
Miro
Overflow
Spotify
Twitter
Wikipedia
YouTube
Zeplin
Zillow

and more! <- what is this list? and how do I we get removed from it?

[Andrew Kendris]

@Bill_P - I see your point and would also raise it as a phishing risk because, by default, users can't see URL.

[Bill_P]

@Andrew Kendris Any update on this? 

I wonder if Jonathan Katahanas would be able to help answer:

1. Why was this "feature" introduced for unknown external links?

2. What problem is it solving?

[tlancaster]

Posting an extra comment here to add my voice to the users who would like to see the full URL rather than the prettified option.

[Florian Gössele]

@tlancaster me too.

[Pieter Wyffels]

+1 Posting an extra comment here to add my voice to the users who would like to see the full URL rather than the prettified option.

[Alex Traber]

+1 we have serious problems since this feature appeared. 

a) before, you could just add an issue key as ABC-123 and it was parsed as ticket with a smart preview which was really helpful. Apparently, this does not work anymore. Now we have to insert the whole link to get this preview which is annoying since we are communicating 100% just with issue keys.

b) for ecommerce with different shops its an desaster. We use "shortened urls" in summary and description to provide information about the environment involved (e.g. ab.cd which would be e.g. the german shop). Now these "links" are getting rendered as actual URLs. This is highly annoying for us.

Please please please provide a possibility to deactivate this feature or at least deactivate it for external (non-atlassian) URLs.

[Brian Sayatovic]

Our links are to intranet URLs that Atlassian Cloud doesn't have access to, so it ends up displaying the link as the front-door login page for the intranet, making all of the links useless and identical. I'm so tired of manually correcting dozens of links each time I paste them.

[Mike Preisinger]

This is a daily source of annoyance for my team.  As many others have said already, this is a product used to do development and other technical tasks.  The actual URL is almost always going to be important in that context.  This needs to be a setting and it needs to be defaulted to "inline" since that is likely the most common use-case.  

[Bastian Walger]

Is there any update on this case? It is so anyoing and is driving our team mad... :-( 

[Colin Caufield]

Please fix this.  It's just an awful experience.  Every time I paste a list of URLs I have to waste 5 minutes clicking around on the same little buttons.  I also can't type something.com without having to do a big song and dance to unlink, remove the http://, etc.

Isn't Jira supposed to be used for software development?  My coworkers and I write dozens of URLs in issues daily and we *never* want them to be rewritten.  The structure of the URL is what we're trying to communicate, not the page title.  Most of the time we're working with API endpoints that don't have titles, or internal pages that require authorization.

I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.  How is anyone getting work done with this software?

[Brian Jackson]

100% agree. Please everyone vote on this issue here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-72429

Our only hope is to get more and more eyeballs on this. I even got the CEO of Atlassian to at least see this, but he doesn't seem to understand why it's a problem. 🤦 https://twitter.com/scottfarkas/status/1466134135563378690

I will keep helping to spread the word around. 

[rroliver_delwp]

This misfeature is an amazing time waster

I wouldn't care if it only did this for actual URLs, but to do it every time I type in a goddamned domain name (ie: tickets for updating DNS entries, mail domains, shit it does it to Kerberos realms) is making me want to punch somebody.

Not everything is a damned web address.

For crying out loud, let people highlight the damned text and choose IF they want this bullshit to happen.