Preventing Relative Links in Chunks from Turning into Absolute URLs

Relative URLs inside chunks look simple, but once they pass through the parser and the surrounding document context, they may not behave the way you expect. The donor case described a chunk containing a link like <a href="page.php"> that later rendered as an absolute URL instead.

That kind of transformation is easy to miss until it starts affecting not only links but also image references and embedded assets.

Why it happens

• The parser may normalize output according to the current page context.
• Base URL handling can promote relative paths into absolute ones.
• Chunks reused in different contexts can behave differently than expected.

The practical fix is to decide up front whether the chunk should own fully explicit URLs or intentionally relative ones. Reusable chunks are much easier to trust when their URL behavior is intentional rather than inherited by accident.