Anchors / internal links not working [solution]

[benedekh]

It is just a reminder to future self and everyone, who is struggling with the problem: "anchors, internal links not working in wkhtmltopdf 0.12.4 (or maybe earlier versions also)"

Problem:

If you have an anchor whose content is empty, then they will be removed by WebKit. (Thank you @ashkulz for pointing it out!)

<a name="here"></a>
....
I want to go <a href="#here">there.</a>

Solution:

Put anything within the anchor, and it should work now:

<a name="here">&nbsp;</a>
....
I want to go <a href="#here">there.</a>

This issue is linked to #1554, #2153, #2949, #2957 and maybe to some other PRs and issues also that I have not found yet.

Acknowledgement:

I would like to say a huge thank you to @ashkulz for pointing out the issue with WebKit. I would also like to say thank you to any contributor who fixes (or has already fixed, e.g. @rpedela in #2957) this problem in a PR.

[allenwu1973]

Thanks! You saved my day. I found setting display to block with CSS also fix this.

a:empty {
  display: block;
  position: absolute; /* see #4404 */
}

[benedekh]

@allenwu1973 I'm glad, that I could help you. :-)

[asmshaon]

Thanks! You saved my day. I found setting display to block with CSS also fix this.

a:empty {
  display: block;
  position: absolute; /* see #4404 */
}

This works for me, thanks a lot