Opening a webpage from link in PDF target

[berniexmeyer]

Background:

> I have a project containing topics that are used to generate two different PDF targets (an admin guide and an install guide) which share many topics. Two diff outline TOC's determine the content of each.

> The online (HTML-5) output is a union of all these topics in an online knowledge base.

> In the Install Guide, I have some references to topics that appear only in the Admin Guide. This is fine in the online output, but creates a problem for the PDF output. Those links don't work.

Here is what I want to do:
> In the HTML5 target, have such links appear as:
see <Referenced Topic Title>. Clicking the link would open the referenced topic.
(A simple Xref definition placed in the Default Medium would take care of this; but I am not sure the Xref structure will work for the next requirement)

> In the print (PDF) target, have such links say something like:
look up "Typed-inTopic Title" in the online Knowledge Base". Clicking the link would open the webpage where our users have to log in in order to access our knowledge base.
If I could get this to work using the Xref structure, I would place the proper definition in the Print Medium.

I fiddled with the URL command offered in the XREF editor, but couldn't figure out how to make it work.
I tried {https://www.blah.com} and {URL=https://www.blah.com}. Neither worked. The Madcap reference topic on the xref commands did not provide an example of correct syntax.

Can anyone tell me if Xref can be made to work in this way, and if so, the proper syntax for the link to a webpage.
If it can't, is there some other way to get the effect I want, such as using a hyperlink or some combo of xref and hyperlink?

[Psider]

I don't think you can do what you want with an xref. The only places you can Link to is a Topic in Project, or a Place in this Document (in Flare 9).

The commands just control how your Link to selection displays. So picking {url} indicates you want to show the URL for the selected topic.

You could conditionalise your xref so that it only appears in your HTML5 output, and insert another sentence that is conditionalised for your PDF output. This second sentence would include a regular hyperlink that points to the appropriate website.

HTH,
Amber