Fluid UI - New Window Feature - Workaround

Graham Smith created an idea on My Oracle Support Community to carry forward the "New Window" feature in Fluid pages especially for users on the desktop (or non-small form factor devices).

We can understand that Fluid user interface is designed with a mobile first and more importantly small form factor (SFF) first approach. This is one of the reasons why we don't get the Toolbar Actions (Save, Return to List, Next in list, Previous in list, etc.) by default on Fluid pages. But Graham has rightly pointed out that Fluid is not just an UI for mobile devices, we also need to account for users on desktops who are accustomed to opening new windows using the "New Window" feature.

This idea is trending and has already received several votes in a short period. I am hoping this would be incorporated as an enhancement in the future PeopleTools releases. I encourage everyone to continue voting. The more the merrier!
https://community.oracle.com/ideas/16701
 
Workaround while we wait?

Note: The workaround suggested in this post involves a minor customization. As with any customization, we will need to determine - based on our environment and circumstances - if the cost of maintaining this customization (until such time as we receive a solution from Oracle) outweighs the benefits!

Let us say that we decided to go down the path of introducing the "New Window" feature in Fluid, where would we put it? I am not convinced that bringing it back in literal terms and placing it exactly where it was located in Classic pages would be a good fit for Fluid (even if we are only talking medium, large and extra large form factors). If we notice, the traditional "Help" feature that links to context sensitive PeopleBooks, is now located in the Action Menu on the Fluid Header.

New Window and Help links in Classic:

Help link in Fluid:

It seems logical to similarly add the "New Window" functionality to the Action Menu in the Fluid Branding Header! That way, we will not be interfering with the content area of the page.

In my previous posts on Branding, I described how we can globally (across the application) add a link to the Action Menu in the Fluid Branding Header. I demonstrated the concept using an external link as an example.
Refer: Adding Custom Links to Fluid Branding

We can follow the same steps to add the 'New Window' link as well. In my case, I already created the custom subpage (CSK_HEADER_ACTION). I simply added a groupbox and a hyperlink (derived work field) to the subpage (similar to the external link example).

I added the following PeopleCode on the FieldChange event to open a New Window.

Updated on 04/26/2018

Please refer the below blog post for updated code/logic.
https://pe0ples0ft.blogspot.com/2018/04/adding-custom-links-to-action-menu.html#2

Results:

Suppress New Window feature on Small Form Factor (SFF) Devices (Optional):

If we would like to suppress the New Window feature for SFF devices, then we can simply configure this using the page field properties as shown in the following screenshots.

PeopleCode for Reference:

&fullURI = %Request.FullURI;

&pos1 = Find("/psc/", &fullURI);
&part1 = Substring(&fullURI, 1, &pos1 + 4);
&part2 = Substring(&fullURI, &pos1 + 5, Len(&fullURI));

&pos2 = Find("/", &part2);
&part3 = Substring(&part2, 1, &pos2 - 1);
&part4 = Substring(&part2, &pos2, Len(&part2));

&pos3 = Find("_", &part3);
If &pos3 = 0 Then
   &site = &part3;
Else
   &site = Substring(&part3, 1, &pos3 - 1);
End-If;

&newWinURL = &part1 | &site | "_newwin" | &part4;
ViewContentURL(&newWinURL);

Related Posts - Productivity Enhancements:
Fluid UI - CTRL+J - On Mobile Devices