Link to about:blank page

Hi @wayfarians,

It opened for me (on my mobile) without any issues.

It could be a browser extension like Ad Blocker or uBlock Origin causing the issue.
We’ve seen some recent changes in these add-ons where they’re getting more aggressive in their blocking.

They now appear to block any script with the word “affiliate” or “aff” in it.

Because our plugin folder is called “thirstyaffilites” these blockers are preventing our scripts from running because it matches “aff” or “affiliate”.

Try disabling them and see if that helps.

Thanks for the quick response.

Just to clarify, this is only occurring on mobile.

The affiliate link does eventually open the Booking.com app at the desired page where I want it. However, prior to doing that an “about:blank” page opens in Safari (and also Chrome). This page stays open even after the Booking.com app has opened.

When I click on a link to an affiliate for which I do not have a corresponding mobile app the “about:blank” page redirects to the desired affiliate page.

Does that make sense?

Not running any ad blocking browser extensions.

When I check affiliate links on other websites clicking the link goes straight to the mobile app and no blank safari page is opened, or when a Safari page does open, this seems to automatically close after the mobile app takes over.

Again thanks for the support.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by J&D.

I should add, this issue only happens when I use the cloaked link. When I use the uncloaked destination URL the booking.com app just opens directly without the about:blank page in Safari or Chrome.

Hi @wayfarians,

It could be a setting by your webhost, maybe something that is supposed to optimize WordPress, but affects how the redirects work (we had a few customers with this issue before).

Hey Caseproof,

Thanks for your response.

I have tested your theory of the issue being on the hosting side by installing Pretty Links to see if the same issue occurred.

With that plugin a window opens and I get a popup saying “Open this page in Booking.com?” I do not get an “about:blank” page at all.

Wouldn’t I have the same problem with Pretty Links if the problem was on the hosting side of things?

I’d prefer to stay with Thirsty Affiliates so would really like to solve this issue if we can.

Cheers

John

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by J&D.
• This reply was modified 10 months ago by J&D.

So not convinced this is a host side issue.

• This reply was modified 10 months ago by J&D.

Hi @wayfarians,

If you have the Enable Enhanced Javascript Redirect on Frontend option under ThirstyAffiliates>Settings>Link Appearance section enabled, try disabling it and see if that helps.

If that doesn’t help, please reach out to us through the form on our site so we can take a closer look into the issue.

Thanks Caseproof,

I have unticked the “Enable Enhanced Javascript Redirect on Frontend” box and this seems to have addressed the issue.

Will unticking this box have any uninteded consequences or impact performance in any way?

Thanks

John

Hi?@wayfarians,

With that option disabled, the redirects won’t go through admin-ajax any longer and this is why we recommend disabling this option in the case of slow link loading.