jQuery XHTML Strict Target=”_blank” Solution

As many of you know, XHTML Strict does not allow the target attribute within <a> tags. I have been using a JavaScript solution which I found online a few years back. The code was a bit verbose so I decided to update it using jQuery.

$(document).ready(function () {
    $('a[rel="external"]').each(function(i) {
        $(this).attr('target', '_blank');
    });
});

With the above code in place, simply put rel=”external” on any anchor tags that need to open in a new window.