Elements

Link

A link takes the user somewhere: a web page, another app (mailto:, tel:), or a screen of the app itself. It owns the behavior: presses, Return and Space while it has the keyboard focus, the disabled state, and the link role for screen readers. The look is the app’s: a Link has no color, underline or label of its own, and its children are what shows. href says where it goes; it is data for the opening, never text on screen.

el-link.tsx

el-link.tsxLive

import { mount, signal, Text, View } from "nsh";
import { Link } from "nsh/base";
import { desktop, focusRing, Icon, Log, Panel, size, Split, tint, ui } from "./palette";

// Links of the app's look: the accent with a quiet underline that fills in
// under the pointer, violet once visited (the app remembers what it
// opened), the palette's focus ring, dimmed while disabled. The color and
// the underline move with `transition-colors`, still with reduced motion.
const visited = signal(new Set<string>());
const events = signal<string[]>([]);
const route = signal("/docs/link");

const opened = ({ href }: { href: string }) => {
  visited.set(new Set(visited()).add(href));
  events.set([`onOpen ${href}`, ...events()].slice(0, 4));
};

function DocLink(props: { href: string; label: string; openWith?: "system" | "app"; disabled?: boolean; current?: boolean; icon?: boolean; inline?: boolean }) {
  const seen = () => visited().has(props.href);
  const color = () => (props.disabled ? ui().faint : props.current ? ui().text : seen() ? ui().violet : ui().accent);
  return (
    <Link
      href={props.href}
      openWith={props.openWith ?? "app"}
      disabled={props.disabled}
      current={props.current}
      onOpen={(e: { href: string }) => {
        opened(e);
        if ((props.openWith ?? "app") === "app") route.set(e.href);
      }}
      class={`flex-row items-center gap-1 rounded-sm transition-colors motion-reduce:transition-none active:opacity-60 ${props.inline ? "align-text-bottom" : "self-start"}`}
      focusStyle={focusRing(2)}
    >
      <Text
        class="transition-colors motion-reduce:transition-none"
        style={{
          fontSize: props.inline ? 15 : size.label,
          fontWeight: props.current ? "600" : "500",
          color: color(),
          textDecorationLine: props.current || props.disabled ? "none" : "underline",
          textDecorationColor: tint(color(), 0.4),
        }}
        hoverStyle={props.disabled || props.current ? undefined : { textDecorationColor: color() }}
      >
        {props.label}
      </Text>
      {props.icon ? <Icon name="external" size={13} tint={color()} /> : null}
    </Link>
  );
}

function App() {
  const crumb = (href: string, label: string) => <DocLink href={href} label={label} current={route() === href} />;
  const slash = () => <Text style={{ color: ui().faint, fontSize: size.label }}>/</Text>;
  return (
    <View style={{ flex: 1, backgroundColor: ui().page, padding: 20, paddingTop: 24, gap: 14 }}>
      <Text style={{ fontSize: 22, fontWeight: "700", color: ui().text }}>link</Text>
      <Text style={{ color: ui().muted }}>{desktop ? "Click a link, or Tab to one and press Return" : "Tap a link"}</Text>

      <Split
        gap={14}
        inspector={
          <>
            <Panel title="route · visited">
              <Text style={{ fontSize: 13, color: ui().text }}>
                {route()} · {visited().size} visited
              </Text>
            </Panel>
            <Log title="onOpen({ href })" lines={events()} minHeight={110} />
          </>
        }
      >
        <View style={{ ...ui().card, borderRadius: 16, padding: desktop ? 16 : 18, gap: 14 }}>
          <View style={{ flexDirection: "row", alignItems: "center", flexWrap: "wrap", gap: 6 }}>
            {crumb("/docs", "Docs")}
            {slash()}
            {crumb("/docs/elements", "Elements")}
            {slash()}
            {crumb("/docs/link", "Link")}
          </View>
          <Text style={{ fontSize: 15, lineHeight: 22, color: ui().text }}>
            {"Read the "}
            <DocLink href="/docs/release-notes" label="release notes" inline />
            {" and the "}
            <DocLink href="/docs/migration" label="migration guide" inline />
            {" before you update."}
          </Text>
          <View style={{ height: 1, backgroundColor: ui().line }} />
          <View style={{ gap: 10 }}>
            <DocLink href="https://example.com/" label="example.com" openWith="system" icon />
            <DocLink href="/docs/archive" label="Archived docs" disabled />
          </View>
        </View>
      </Split>
    </View>
  );
}

mount(App);

use nsh_base::{link, theme};
use nsh_core::prelude::*;

fn docs() -> impl IntoElement {
    link()
        .href("https://example.com/docs")
        .text_color(move || theme().primary)
        .underline()
        .hover(|s| s.opacity(0.8))
        .focus(|s| s.rounded_sm().outline(px(2.0)).outline_color(move || theme().ring))
        .child(text("Read the docs"))
}

import { mount, Text } from "nsh";
import { Link } from "nsh/base";

function App() {
  return (
    <Link
      href="https://example.com/docs"
      class="self-start text-primary underline hover:opacity-80 focus:rounded-sm focus:outline-2 focus:outline-ring"
    >
      <Text>Read the docs</Text>
    </Link>
  );
}

mount(App);

Link comes from nsh/base, the nsh-base crate in Rust. In Rust, link() makes one with a setter per prop (.href(..), .open_with(..)), a listener per event (.on_open(..), .on_press(..)), the typed style methods for the link and .child(..) for its content.

#Opening

A press, a click, or Return or Space on the focused link opens its href:

onOpen({ href }) reports where it goes.
With openWith="system" (the default), a URL of another app or site, one with a scheme (https:, mailto:, tel:, a scheme another app registered), opens outside the app, as openUrl opens it: the embedding app’s router takes it first, then the system does. Any other href, a path of the app’s (/orders/42) or #anchor, is reported and stays with the app.
onPress() reports the press.

With openWith="app", the app’s onOpen handler is how the link opens: a route of its own, a page in an in-app web view, a confirmation first.

import { Link } from "nsh/base";

<Link href={`/orders/${order.id}`} openWith="app" onOpen={({ href }) => router.push(href)} class="text-primary">
  <Text>Order #{order.id}</Text>
</Link>

Opening a URL outside the app takes the openUrl capability when the app declares capabilities in nsh.json ("openUrl": true, or { "schemes": ["https", "mailto"] }).

#Props

Prop	Rust	Type	Default	Description
`href`	`.href(..)`	`string`	none	Where the link goes: a URL, or a path of the app’s. Reported with `onOpen`, never shown.
`openWith`	`.open_with(LinkOpenWith::App)`	`"system" \| "app"` (`LinkOpenWith`)	`"system"`	Who opens `href`: the system opens a URL of another app or site; `"app"` leaves it to `onOpen`.
`disabled`	`.disabled(..)`	`boolean`	`false`	No presses, no press feedback, no keyboard focus; `disabled:` styles apply, and screen readers say it is dimmed.
`current`	`.current(..)`	`boolean`	`false`	The link to the page the user is on, in a navigation or a breadcrumb: screen readers say it is the current page.
`accessibilityLabel`	`.accessibility_label(..)`	`string`	none	What screen readers say, when the content says too little (an icon).
`children`	`.child(..)`	`JSX.Element`	none	The content: a label, an icon, anything the app shows.
`class`, `style`	style methods	`string`, `StyleProp<ViewStyle>`	none	The link’s look: its color, underline, padding; text properties pass to the texts inside it.
`activeStyle`, `hoverStyle`, `focusStyle`, `disabledStyle`	`.active(\|s\| ..)`, `.hover(..)`, `.focus(..)`, `.disabled_style(..)`	`StyleProp<ViewStyle>`	none	The link’s style while pressed, hovered, focused or disabled, as the `<state>:` classes.

#Events

Event	Rust	Description
`onOpen`	`.on_open(\|href: &SharedString\| ..)`	The link opens `href`: with `openWith="app"` the handler opens it, with `"system"` it hears what the system was asked to open. It comes before `onPress`.
`onPress`	`.on_press(\|\| ..)`	The link was pressed: a tap, a click, or Return or Space while it has the keyboard focus.

A disabled link reports nothing, and a press on it reaches no pressable view around it.

#States

The app styles each state with classes or style props:

<Link
  href="https://example.com/changelog"
  class="self-start text-primary underline decoration-primary/40 transition-colors hover:decoration-primary active:opacity-70 focus:outline-2 focus:outline-ring disabled:text-muted-foreground disabled:no-underline"
>
  <Text>Changelog</Text>
</Link>

A visited link is the app’s to remember: it keeps the hrefs it opened and styles those links by its own state.

const visited = signal(new Set<string>());

<Link
  href={href}
  onOpen={({ href }) => visited.set(new Set(visited()).add(href))}
  class={visited().has(href) ? "text-violet-600 underline" : "text-primary underline"}
>
  <Text>{label}</Text>
</Link>

#Inside text

A Link inside a <Text> is an inline box of the paragraph, as every view inside a text is: it sits in the line, keeps its own states, focus and role, and stays on one line. align-text-bottom places a link with one line of text on the paragraph’s baseline:

<Text class="text-[15px] text-foreground">
  By continuing you accept the{" "}
  <Link href="https://example.com/terms" class="align-text-bottom">
    <Text class="text-[15px] text-primary underline">terms of service</Text>
  </Link>
  .
</Text>

A link that wraps with the paragraph’s lines is a nested <Text> with role="link" and onPress (see Text), as TextView draws the links of a document.

#Accessibility

A link is one element for screen readers, with the role "link"; its label is the text of its children, or accessibilityLabel. href stays data: screen readers say the label.
current is said as the current page (ARIA’s aria-current="page"), and disabled as the platform says a dimmed element.
On macOS and the web a link is a stop of the keyboard focus: Tab reaches it, Return and Space open it, and focus: styles show where the focus is.

See Accessibility for labels, roles and announcements in general.

#Platform notes

iOS, Android and Mac Catalyst: a press is a tap that ends on the link.
Desktops (macOS, Windows, Linux, GPUI) and the web: a press is a click. On macOS and the web, Return and Space also open the link that has the keyboard focus.
The web renders a link as an element with role="link".
Every platform draws what the app styles.