Add WP Admin util to open support links in Help Center

[mmtr]

Part of DOTSUP-66
Required by 185363-ghe-Automattic/wpcom and Automattic/jetpack#43930

Proposed Changes

Updates the Help Center app for WP Admin so any support link with a data-target="wpcom-help-center" attribute is opened in the Help Center directly rather than in a new tab.

Screen.Recording.2025-06-12.at.15.35.19.mov

This is useful for cases where React is not available and therefore we cannot use the WpcomSupportLink component introduced in Automattic/jetpack#43883.

Why are these changes being made?

Because it provides a more consistent and quality user experience and it trains users to use the Help Center.

Testing Instructions

• Apply these changes to your sandbox, along with 185363-ghe-Automattic/wpcom and Settings: Open support links in Help Center jetpack#43930:

git checkout origin/dotsup-66-open-settings-support-links-in-help-center
install-plugin.sh help-center dotsup-66-open-settings-support-links-in-help-center
bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack dotsup-66-open-settings-support-links-in-help-center
bin/jetpack-downloader test jetpack-mu-wpcom-plugin dotsup-66-open-settings-support-links-in-help-center

• Sandbox widgets.wp.com and a Simple site
• Go to the following screens, and make sure that the supports links are opened in the Help Center:
  • /wp-admin/options-general.php:
    • Action Bar visibility > Learn more about the Action Bar.
  • /wp-admin/options-writing.php:
    • Markdown > Learn more about Markdown.
    • Post by Email > You can publish posts using emails with the Post by Email feature.
    • Post by Voice > You can publish posts using voice with the Post by Voice feature.
    • Portfolio Projects > Learn More
    • Testimonials > Learn More
  • /wp-admin/options-reading.php:
    • Site visibility > Control who can view your site. Learn more
    • Site visibility > ...including those that train AI models. Learn more
  • /wp-admin/options-discussion.php:
    • Markdown > Learn more about Markdown.

Pre-merge Checklist

• Has the general commit checklist been followed? (PCYsg-hS-p2)
• Have you written new tests for your changes?
• Have you tested the feature in Simple (P9HQHe-k8-p2), Atomic (P9HQHe-jW-p2), and self-hosted Jetpack sites (PCYsg-g6b-p2)?
• Have you checked for TypeScript, React or other console errors?
• Have you used memoizing on expensive computations? More info in Memoizing with create-selector and Using memoizing selectors and Our Approach to Data
• Have we added the "[Status] String Freeze" label as soon as any new strings were ready for translation (p4TIVU-5Jq-p2)?
  • For UI changes, have we tested the change in various languages (for example, ES, PT, FR, or DE)? The length of text and words vary significantly between languages.
• For changes affecting Jetpack: Have we added the "[Status] Needs Privacy Updates" label if this pull request changes what data or activity we track or use (p4TIVU-aUh-p2)?

[github-actions]

Calypso Live (direct link)

https://calypso.live?image=registry.a8c.com/calypso/app:build-147899

Jetpack Cloud live (direct link)

https://calypso.live?image=registry.a8c.com/calypso/app:build-147899&env=jetpack

Automattic for Agencies live (direct link)

https://calypso.live?image=registry.a8c.com/calypso/app:build-147899&env=a8c-for-agencies

[matticbot]

This PR does not affect the size of JS and CSS bundles shipped to the user's browser.

Generated by performance advisor bot at iscalypsofastyet.com.

[alshakero]

Great design. Simple and does the job. Left one optional note.

[matticbot]

This PR modifies the release build for the following Calypso Apps:

For info about this notification, see here: PCYsg-OT6-p2

• help-center

To test WordPress.com changes, run install-plugin.sh $pluginSlug dotsup-66-open-settings-support-links-in-help-center on your sandbox.

[alshakero]

Tested it with Automattic/jetpack#43949 and works perfectly.