In my previous web apps (pre-yii), I’ve always used a new window when opening a form (a view of a single record) such as yii’s standard ‘view.php’ and ‘update.php’ pages. I’ve done this to allow users to keep a record open while they do other things in the application (look up lists, compare records, etc). But in the Yii world it all seems to run in a single window.
I’m loving Yii, but would appreciate some feedback from the group, and if you have implemented with my usual ‘single record=>new window’ design approach for Yii what you discovered.
By common usage it’s better to leave the decision for the new window to the user… you can use a standard link for the “create/update record” and the user can himself choose if he wants to just click it so it opens in the current window or “right click-open in new window” (or middle click)
Links should always open in the same window. With the rare exception (and really, there hardly are any) opening links in a new window is a bad usability choice. When you force links to open in a new window, you basically tell the user: "you know what, I am the developer and I have the power to upset your browsing habits". In order words, you are dictating users how they should use a link. Bad, bad, bad design choice.
Always let the user control how he or she opens a link. Middle-click and Shift-click were invented for a reason…
