Set up Link Proxy: the redirect page and your whitelist
Link Proxy sends external links through a warning page. Choose which content it covers, which domains skip it, and how long the page waits.
Updated 4 min read By the D.C Style team
On this page
Link Proxy sends external links through a warning page before visitors leave your forum. The page reminds them they are going to a site you do not control, shows where the link goes, and then continues automatically or waits for a click. It works as soon as it is installed. Setting it up is about three choices: which content it covers, which domains skip it, and how long the warning page waits. It works on XenForo 2.2 and newer.
What visitors see
When someone clicks an external link in a post, they land on a page titled "Please be careful..." that shows the address they are going to and a link back to the original content. By default it counts down for three seconds and then continues. Links to your own forum are never sent through this page.
The warning page only accepts addresses that really appear in the content they came from. Someone cannot craft a link that uses your forum's redirect page to send people to a site of their choosing.
Choose which content it covers
Go to Setup > Options > D.C Style - Link Proxy. Supported content types lists what it can handle:
- XF:Post: posts in threads.
- XF:ProfilePost: profile posts.
- XFRM:ResourceUpdate: resource updates, if you run XenForo Resource Manager.
- XFMG:Album and XFMG:Media: albums and media, if you run XenForo Media Gallery.
All are ticked by default. Links elsewhere, such as signatures or custom profile fields, are left as normal links.
Whitelist domains you trust
Domain White List holds domains whose links open directly, with no warning page. Your own forum is already skipped. Add the sites you trust, such as your company site, your documentation or a video site your members use all the time. The rules:
- One domain per line.
example.comcovers the domain and all its subdomains, soshop.example.comopens directly too..example.com, with a leading dot, covers only the subdomains, notexample.comitself.- Leave out
www.. Writeexample.com, notwww.example.com.
example.com
youtube.com
.example.orgTip: Keep the list short. Every domain you add is one your members reach without a warning, so add sites you would vouch for, not every popular site.
Set how long the page waits
| Option | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Enable automatic redirection | On | Sends visitors on automatically. Turn it off to make them click Continue. |
| Auto redirection time | 3 | Seconds to wait before continuing automatically. |
A short wait keeps the forum pleasant to use. Requiring a click is safer for communities where members are often targeted by scam links.
If links are not being proxied
- Check the content type. Only the content types ticked in the options are covered.
- Check the whitelist. A domain on the list, or a subdomain of one, opens directly by design.
- Old pages from a cache. Links in pages served from a cache keep their old form until the cache refreshes. Changes not showing? explains where caches hide.
- Another add-on uses the same address. The warning page lives at
/redirecton your forum. If another add-on also uses/redirect, the two clash and one of them stops working. Disable the other add-on briefly to confirm: disable or uninstall an add-on. - The redirect page shows an error. Look in Logs > Server error log for the details: find the real error.
The redirect page follows your style, so its colours and fonts match the rest of your forum. More on the Link Proxy page.
Still stuck? Open a support ticket with your XenForo version, a link to a post whose link is not handled as expected, and your whitelist.