WP Exernal Links not working with FacetWP

Hi,
Since FacetWP is a pro-only plugin, unfortunately, we can’t test anything with it or provide any specific info for it.
As for the setting that sort of fixes things it’s there to skip processing content in AJAX requests, that’s why it helps. We have plans to add an extra setting for “all content except AJAX” in the future versions to help alleviate the issue.

Hello,

This isn’t limited to AJAX, this includes REST API requests as well.

After digging into the code a bit, it makes sense why the “all” option breaks things:

With that option enabled, the plugin automatically turns on output buffering (ob_start):

https://plugins.trac.www.ads-software.com/browser/wp-external-links/trunk/includes/class-wpel-front.php#L36

Later on in the code, it abruptly stops (and throws away) all output captured by their output buffer for REST API requests:

https://plugins.trac.www.ads-software.com/browser/wp-external-links/trunk/includes/class-wpel-front.php#L72

WP External Links likely (negatively) affects many other plugins that rely on custom REST API endpoints. There needs to be a better way to determine whether the current request uses the REST API and, if so, then don’t do any output buffering.