Add <nolink> to allow for non-link links

+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Utility/LinkGenerator.php
@@ -147,16 +147,21 @@ public function generate($text, Url $url) {
+      $generated_link = new GeneratedLink();

If we do that, it would be nice to mention that on GeneratedLink itself

From a frontend POV <span> is probably the right thing to use here. I'm curious what kind of attributes would/could end up on that element though (in common scenarios). The test just shows a span with no attributes.

A few of us talked about this on IRC and I think we agreed that ideally we would just use <none> but it's already taken. The nice thing about <nolink> IMO is that it's theoretically in use by almost 100k Drupal 7 sites already: https://www.drupal.org/project/special_menu_items

A more ideal solution is probably to (also) make this part of the menu link UI somehow but that's definitely out of scope here.

+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/GeneratedNoLink.php
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+ * Contains \Drupal\Core\GeneratedTextLink.
...
+class GeneratedNoLink extends GeneratedLink {

@file docblock is slightly out of date.

Ah I was gonna say we should add test coverage for using that in the UI< but I totally believe that this will actually happen as part of #1543750: Allow menu items without path

+++ b/core/tests/Drupal/Tests/Core/Utility/LinkGeneratorTest.php
@@ -152,6 +153,26 @@ public function testGenerate() {
+    $this->assertTrue($result instanceof GeneratedNoLink);

Note: you could use assertInstanceOf if you like.

Sorry, I actually wanted to RTBC it.

Is changing the tag from a to span in scope for this issue? An a tag without href attribute is perfectly valid HTML5, no?

If you theme that, do you think this would work as well?

If you theme that, do you think this would work as well?

Sorry, not sure what this means...

Anyways, the a tag use case would probably be better served by something like <placeholderlink> and the <nolink> route seems to suit the span markup.
It feels natural to address the simple placeholder hyperlink use case first...

Shouldn't this also have a test for UrlGenerator?

@Wim Leers
What kind of test do you have in mind? The YML definition is pretty clear, this is tested thousands already for <none>

It just seems like all special cases should be tested explicitly. But I trust @dawehner's judgment: apparently this is less special than I thought.

Discussed with @Cottser, @effulgentsia, and @alexpott. This one should be targeted for 8.2.x now for the addition like #1543750: Allow menu items without path which it unblocks. (This means it can be committed at any time rather than being subject to the RC freeze.)

Thanks everyone!

Discussed with @dawehner - the LinkGenerator shouldn't have to know anything about which tags to use. Whilst the solution in the attached patch is not perfect - moving the HTML generation to the value object is out of scope here.

Small improvement, still not ideal of course, but well, let's see where we can get in 8.2.x

Committed/pushed to 8.2.x, thanks!

1. +++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/GeneratedNoLink.php
   @@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
   +class GeneratedNoLink extends GeneratedLink {
   +
   +  /**
   +   * {@inheritdoc}
   +   */
   +  const TAG = 'span';
   +
   +}
   

   This must be one of the funniest & funkiest subclasses in all of Drupal :)

2. +++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Utility/LinkGenerator.php
   @@ -142,7 +143,7 @@ public function generate($text, Url $url) {
   +    // them. Make sure the "href" comes first for testing purposes.
   

   "href first" -> ugh, just use actual HTML parsing rather than string parsing… But this is a pre-existing thing, this is just clarifying the comment.

Looks this needs changes record!

Here is an issue which introduces some similar value objects for URL: #2346787: Update Url to reflect that it handles both routes and non-routed URIs

Any workaround to do this on Drupal 8.1.1?

I tried as the link and I still get the error message "Manually entered paths should start with /, ? or #." in 8.2.x

@risforrocket see #1543750-126: Allow menu items without path

for 8.2.x use route:<nolink>

The route:<nolink> works more or less, but a major issue has been still present: https://www.drupal.org/node/2838351 (I use 8.2.6)

EDIT

I found a solution (or a workaround) for this issue: If I set the parent menu item (with route:<nolink> path) to Show as expanded, it works as expected.

Now that the special_menu_items module is no longer supported, I tried route: on the latest 8.4.dev

I get the error message "Manually entered paths should start with /, ? or #." as well. Is there a different strategy for 8.4.dev?

Seems to be some confusion here, me included:

You must type

route: <nolink>

in the form field, including the word 'route' and a colon.

Screenshot of form field: "route nolink"

Thanks! that works. Maybe it should be added to the field help text as one of the examples.

Post #39 shows a space between "route:" and "".
IF someone copy & pastes this, the route is rejected, due to the space.

This is all very bad usability.