WebberZone Link Warnings Settings Reference

This document describes all available settings for the WebberZone Link Warnings plugin. All plugin settings are available at Settings > Link Warnings. The settings page is organized into three tabs: General, Display, and Advanced.

Settings are stored in a single WordPress option: wzlw_settings.

General tab

Warning Method

Controls how users are warned about external links.

Default: inline_modal Setting key: warning_method

Inline Indicator Scope

Determines which links receive inline indicators. Modal and redirect warnings always apply to external links only.

Default: external Setting key: scope

Enabled Post Types

Select which post types the plugin processes. Only singular views of the selected post types are affected. Archive pages, search results, and other non-singular views are not processed.

Default: post, page Setting key: enabled_post_types

External Content

These toggles control the server-side filters that process links outside post content. They are enabled by default. The sitewide JavaScript scan can still process markup added later by a theme or another plugin.

Process Widget Output

Processes links in block, Text, and Custom HTML widget output before it is sent to the browser.

Default: enabled Setting key: process_widgets

Process Navigation Menus

Processes links in classic navigation menu output before it is sent to the browser. Links in block-theme Navigation blocks are covered by Process Block Theme Template Parts when the block is rendered inside a template part.

Default: enabled Setting key: process_nav_menus

Process Comments

Processes links in displayed comment text.

Default: enabled Setting key: process_comments

Process Block Theme Template Parts

Processes the rendered output of block-theme template parts. This covers links in headers, footers, and other template parts without processing every individual block twice.

Default: enabled Setting key: process_template_parts

Display tab

The Display tab is divided into three sections: Inline Indicators, Modal Dialog, and Redirect Screen.

Inline Indicators

These settings control the visual indicators appended to processed links. They apply when the warning method includes an inline component (inline, inline_modal, or inline_redirect).

Visual Indicator

Default: icon Setting key: visual_indicator

Icon Style

Selects which icon to display next to external links. Options include several built-in arrow and external link symbols, plus a Custom option that uses whatever you enter in the Custom Icon field.

Default: arrow_ne Setting key: icon_style

Custom Icon

A custom icon character or symbol, used only when Icon Style is set to “Custom”. Accepts Unicode symbols or emoji.

Default: empty Setting key: custom_icon

Icon Color

The color for the icon.

Default: #595959 Setting key: icon_color

Icon Background Color

Background color for the icon. Leave empty for transparent.

Default: empty Setting key: icon_background

Indicator Text

The visible text displayed next to links when the visual indicator is set to “Text” or “Icon + text”.

Default: (opens in new window) Setting key: indicator_text

Screen Reader Text

Hidden text added inside a <span class="screen-reader-text"> element for assistive technology. This is always added to processed links regardless of the visual indicator setting.

Default: Opens in a new window Setting key: screen_reader_text

Modal Dialog

These settings control the confirmation dialog shown when the warning method includes a modal component (modal or inline_modal).

Modal Title

The heading displayed at the top of the modal dialog.

Default: You are leaving this site Setting key: modal_title

Modal Message

The body text displayed in the modal dialog, below the title.

Default: You are about to visit an external website. Continue? Setting key: modal_message

Download Modal Title

The heading displayed when a visitor follows a link whose URL path ends in a configured downloadable file extension.

Default: You are about to download a file Setting key: download_modal_title

Download Modal Message

The body text displayed for configured downloadable file links.

Default: This link will download a file. Continue? Setting key: download_modal_message

Continue Button Text

The label for the button that opens the external link.

Default: Continue Setting key: modal_continue_text

Cancel Button Text

The label for the button that closes the modal and returns the user to the page.

Default: Cancel Setting key: modal_cancel_text

Modal Frequency

Controls how often the modal is shown to the same visitor. Leaving this on Always show the modal keeps the original behavior — every click on an external link opens the modal.

Choosing either of the other options adds a Don’t show again checkbox to the modal. When a visitor ticks it and clicks Continue, the dismissal is stored in their browser and the modal is skipped for subsequent clicks — the link then behaves like a normal link.

• Always show the modal — no checkbox, the modal always appears.
• Once per browser session — the dismissal is stored in sessionStorage and cleared when the browser tab is closed.
• Once every N days — the dismissal is stored in localStorage and expires after the number of days set below.

Dismissals are stored per browser, not per user account, so nothing is written to your database.

Default: always Setting key: modal_frequency

Remember Dismissal For

The number of days a dismissal is remembered. Only used when the frequency is set to Once every N days.

Default: 30 Range: 1–365 Setting key: modal_frequency_days

Dismissal Scope

Determines how broadly a dismissal applies.

• Per destination domain — dismissing the warning for example.com suppresses the modal for that domain only. Other external links still show the warning.
• All external links — a single dismissal suppresses the modal for every external link on the site.

Default: domain Setting key: modal_frequency_scope

Don’t Show Again Label

The label displayed next to the checkbox in the modal.

Default: Don't show this warning again Setting key: modal_dismiss_text

Redirect Screen

These settings control the interstitial redirect page shown when the warning method includes a redirect component (redirect or inline_redirect).

Redirect Message

The message displayed on the redirect page above the destination URL.

Default: You are being redirected to an external site. Setting key: redirect_message

Redirect Countdown

The number of seconds before the page automatically redirects to the external URL. Set to 0 to disable the automatic redirect entirely — the user must click the “Continue to site” link manually.

Default: 5 Range: 0–60 Setting key: redirect_countdown

Advanced tab

Download Links

Downloadable File Extensions

A comma-separated list of file extensions whose links should receive a download warning. Matching uses the URL path, is case-insensitive, and ignores query strings and fragments. Internal and external URLs are both supported. Do not include the leading dot.

Default: pdf, zip, doc, docx, xls, xlsx, exe, dmg Setting key: download_extensions

Link Attributes

Automatically add rel and target attributes to matching links at render time. Two independent sets of checkboxes are available — one for External Links, one for Affiliate Links (see Affiliate Link Class below) — so you can, for example, add nofollow to affiliate links only while leaving other external links untouched.

A link that already has a rel value keeps it — new values are appended, and matching ignores case, so a link with rel="NoFollow" is not given a duplicate.

Every option is off by default; nothing is added until you tick it.

Default: none selected Setting keys: link_attributes_external, link_attributes_affiliate

Affiliate Link Class

The CSS class that marks a specific link as an affiliate link. Add this class directly to an <a> tag. A link with this class also receives the Affiliate Links attribute set above, and is treated as external for warning purposes even if it points to your own domain (the same way the Force External Class does).

Accepts a comma-separated list of class names.

Default: wzlw-affiliate Setting key: affiliate_class

Affiliate Link Wrapper Class

The CSS class that marks every link inside a wrapper element as an affiliate link. Add it to any containing element.

Accepts a comma-separated list of class names.

Default: wzlw-affiliate-wrapper Setting key: affiliate_wrapper_class

Excluded Domains

A list of domains (one per line) that should be treated as internal. Links pointing to these domains are not processed by the plugin, even if they would otherwise be classified as external.

Enter domain names without the protocol. Two entry formats are supported:

Plain entry — matches that exact domain only:

example.com

example.com matches https://example.com/ but not https://sub.example.com/.

Wildcard entry — matches subdomains only, not the base domain:

*.example.com

*.example.com matches https://sub.example.com/ and https://deep.sub.example.com/ but not https://example.com/.

To exclude a domain and all its subdomains, add both entries:

example.com
*.example.com

Default: empty Setting key: excluded_domains

Suppress Icon Class

The CSS class name that suppresses the visual indicator (icon and/or text) when added directly to an <a> tag. The modal or redirect warning still applies if your warning method includes one. Screen reader text is still added if the link opens in a new tab.

Accepts a comma-separated list of class names. A link carrying any of the listed classes is treated as a match.

Default: wzlw-no-icon Setting key: no_icon_class

Suppress Icon Wrapper Class

The CSS class name that suppresses visual indicators on all links inside a wrapper element. Add it to any containing element to exclude every link inside it.

Accepts a comma-separated list of class names.

Default: wzlw-no-icon-wrapper Setting key: no_icon_wrapper_class

Force External Class

The CSS class name that forces a specific link to be treated as external, regardless of its URL. Add it directly to an <a> tag.

Accepts a comma-separated list of class names.

Default: wzlw-force-external Setting key: force_external_class

Force External Wrapper Class

The CSS class name that forces all links inside a wrapper element to be treated as external. Add it to any containing element.

Accepts a comma-separated list of class names.

Default: wzlw-force-external-wrapper Setting key: force_external_wrapper_class

Programmatic access

All settings can be read and modified programmatically using the wrapper functions defined in includes/options-api.php:

// Get all settings (merged with defaults).
$settings = wzlw_get_settings();

// Get a single setting with an optional fallback.
$method = wzlw_get_option( 'warning_method', 'inline' );

// Update a single setting.
wzlw_update_option( 'warning_method', 'modal' );

// Reset all settings to defaults.
wzlw_settings_reset();

See the Developer Reference for the full list of functions and filter hooks.