[FR] Pasting url should paste a link and when there's a highlighted selection it should make it into a link

[chrisirhc]

Description

This is a behaviour documented over at yzhang-gh/vscode-markdown#20 .

Current behaviour on Mobile iOS

Pasting a link results in noop, nothing happens, nothing is pasted. Regardless of whether a selection is highlighted or not.

Expected behaviour

During a past of a URL:

• If some text is highlighted, that text becomes a link pointing to the URL.
• Else, paste the URL as text and make it into a link pointing to that URL.

Impact

• Easier to add links into a document (down from 4 taps on a mobile, to 1 paste action)

Additional Context

No response

[LucasXu0]

Hi @chrisirhc, we support making the selected text into a link format when there is a highlighted selection. If it's not working on your end, there might be an issue. Could you tell me your iOS system version?

ScreenRecording_01-15-2025.12-46-32_1.mov

[chrisirhc]

Ah, tested it a bit more and found that I saw a few issues I'm facing:

• Safari's (or GitHub) Share button -> Copy copies a rich text link that results in noop in the Appflowy when pasting. Workaround: tap in the address bar to copy and paste
• Non-http protocol urls aren't recognized (e.g. bear://x-callback-url/open-note?... ) and so none of the paste functionality works (highlighted selection or not all no-op)
• When I do copy and paste http url, a system asks whether to "Allow a Paste from Safari". If I click Allow, nothing happens. However, subsequent pastes work.

I'm on iOS 18.2 .

Recording with behavior of GitHub:
https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f5b05311-d5ad-4b50-9309-df5716cc2079

[asjqkkkk]

473_1737194797.mp4

I have found a stable way to reproduce it, it can be reproduced simply by pasting from the clipboard of the input method

[Craigp23]

Is this a related issue...?

Since v0.80 on android, urls are no longer being converted to links. Tried top and tailing the url with markdown ie. [ ]

[chrisirhc]

Created 2 PRs to demonstrate the issues and potential fixes. The fixes are ugly/hacky because I'm a flutter newbie. They're mainly to illustrate the issue.

• Safari's (or GitHub) Share button -> Copy copies a rich text link that results in noop in the Appflowy when pasting. Workaround: tap in the address bar to copy and paste

#7280

• Non-http protocol urls aren't recognized (e.g. bear://x-callback-url/open-note?... ) and so none of the paste functionality works (highlighted selection or not all no-op)

This is due to the following regex only checking for urls that begin with http:
https://github.com/AppFlowy-IO/appflowy-editor/blob/d24a7fc2c3cbb988b4f8e6a0d972bfb5091e2323/lib/src/service/internal_key_event_handlers/copy_paste_handler.dart#L6

• When I do copy and paste http url, a system asks whether to "Allow a Paste from Safari". If I click Allow, nothing happens. However, subsequent pastes work.

AppFlowy-IO/appflowy-editor#1027

Happy to update the fixes based on review suggestions if I receive any review feedback.

[asjqkkkk]

Hi @chrisirhc , Have you had any issues pasting HTTP links on mobile? Such as https://github.com/, or perhaps only links that don't start with HTTP cause the issue? Such as bear://x-callback-url/open-note

[chrisirhc]

Hi @chrisirhc , Have you had any issues pasting HTTP links on mobile? Such as https://github.com/, or perhaps only links that don't start with HTTP cause the issue? Such as bear://x-callback-url/open-note

Yes, I'm seeing issues whenever there's the permission screen to allow paste from the application. See AppFlowy-IO/appflowy-editor#1027 .

I'm also seeing issues whenever pasting what's copied from the Share button. See #7280 .

[asjqkkkk]

Hi @chrisirhc , Have you had any issues pasting HTTP links on mobile? Such as https://github.com/, or perhaps only links that don't start with HTTP cause the issue? Such as bear://x-callback-url/open-note

Yes, I'm seeing issues whenever there's the permission screen to allow paste from the application. See AppFlowy-IO/appflowy-editor#1027 .

I'm also seeing issues whenever pasting what's copied from the Share button. See #7280 .

Thank you, there might indeed be a permission issue currently. As for whether links that don't start with HTTP can be pasted as links, we may need to double-check the specifications for links

[chrisirhc]

Thank you, there might indeed be a permission issue currently.

Links that don't start with HTTP can be pasted as links. There's no permission issue for that.
The permission dialog I'm referring to is in AppFlowy-IO/appflowy-editor#1027 .

As for whether links that don't start with HTTP can be pasted as links, we may need to double-check the specifications for links

They can be, you can test this behaviour today by creating a link manually and using a non-http url works fine. I have clicked on it and it navigates to the other app as expected.

Update: I'll split up the bug reports, since they're 3 distinct issues with separate reproduction steps.

[chrisirhc]

I created 2 bug reports:

• [Bug] iOS copied links paste into a blank string #7283
• [Bug] When pasting from an app from the first time in a while, first paste fails #7284

I didn't create a bug for non-http protocol urls because I can see potential security concerns and also because there is a workaround (via manually pasting into link text field).