No More Broken Links

No More Broken Links

Mark BakerAnalecta Communications Inc.

Why do links break?

Somebody moved the cheese

A

B

D E

C

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Links in HTML

<p>Hawkes‘ final film is a lighthearted Western in the Rio Bravo mold, with <a href="http://www.johnwayne.com/">the Duke</a> as an ex-Union colonel out to settle some old scores.</p>

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Hard Links A hard link identifies a resource to link to

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Hard links are hard work

Author discovers a resource to link to

Author creates link to chosen resource

Author manages and updates link over time

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Hard Linking

Topics contain direct links to other topics

A

B

D E

C

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The problem with hard linking If a topic is reused in more than one

location, what do you do about the links?

A

B

D E

C

First use

A

D

C

Second use

F?

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Remove all the links?

Lonely topics

A

B

D E

C

A

D

C

First use Second use

F

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Externalize the links Move the links to a map file New map file required for each use

Heavy creation and maintenance burden Will tend to limit amount of linking that is practical

First use Second use

Map file for first use

A B

A C

A D

A E

Map file for second use

A C

A D

A F

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Soft linking

A soft link identifies the subject that is mentioned

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Soft links in XML

<p><director name="Howard Hawkes">Hawkes'</director> final film is a lighthearted Western in the <movie>Rio Bravo</movie> mold, with <actor name="John Wayne">the Duke</actor> as an ex-Union colonel out to settle some old scores.</p>

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How do links get made

Topics are indexed by subject

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Topic indexing in XML<topic name="john-wayne-bio"> <index> <reference type="actor"> <key>John Wayne</key> </reference> <reference type="producer"> <key>John Wayne</key> </reference> </index> … </topic>

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Links discovered via topic indexes

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Soft linking != redirection

No resource is identified in any way

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Connection is by subject only

No resource has to exist to name a subject

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Soft linking and reuse Links are created by querying the available

topics in each place a topic is used

A

B

D E

C

First use Second use

A

D

C

F

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What if no topic found?

Sometime there will be no topic in the current set for a reference

A

D

C

F

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Not topic, no link!

No broken link, because no link to break

A

D

C

F

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What if multiple topics found? More than one topic can cover the same subject

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Handling multiple link targets 1

Create a popup with multiple links

Topics on John Wayne• Filmography• Biography

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Handling multiple link targets 2 Gather all the links

at the end of the topic

More on John Wayne

• Filmography

• Biography

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Questions?

Contact information Mark Baker Analecta Communications Inc. [email protected] Twitter: @mbakeranalecta Company: http://analecta.com Blog: http://everypageispageone.com Book: http://xmlpress.net/publications/eppo/

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