WordPress.org

Why would I want to use this plugin over using traditional links?

I found that when I was composing entries that relied heavily upon external links that I spent too much time interrupting my flow creating those links and I thought that I could speed up the process by creating a tag system to allow the quick creation of these links. This was specifically true when I was working with referencing a programming library or making extensive use of wikipedia.

I also worried that if I started to make entensive links to a particular website that if they moved the site completely or if they even changed their linking structure slightly, I would be left with a lot of work as I had to move through my entries to find the links that were now broken. Using this link, creates an abstraction/proxy which allows you to protect you from losing precious links to simple changes.

If I change the bracket format from [[]] to (()), will all my links continue to work?

Currently if you make that change, all the previous links will be rendered inert. I made the bracket setting global to the entire site, but I could also make it unique to the link tag that you create. If there is a demand I can make that change in a future update.

How do I save my settings when I make changes? / My settings do not appear to stay after I make them?

The admin page uses AJAX to make changes after any value changes. For the radio buttons (i.e. same browser / new browser ), the option is saved as you select the new option. For the text fields, the value is saved when you move out away from that control (onblur). So to ensure that a setting is saved: radio buttons, select the radio button option and it should be saved; text inputs and text areas, make the change and tab away or select another field.

Also, the page is written in what I would call 'fragile' AJAX. When you click on a new input on the form, a new javascript event is fired even if one is already taking place. This is essentially me writing poor code. While testing, I found that it took about 300ms for each request to finish, so if you click on options faster than that you run the risk of having an option request not succeed. I will address this in a later update.

What can I use for a TAG?

In the TAG of [[TAG|TERM|TEXT]] you can use any character that is not a pipe character. Currently spaces are not trimmed from the front or the back of the TAG so [[ TAG|TERM|TEXT]] will not be equivalent to [[TAG|TERM|TEXT]].

What can I use for the TERM?

Again, anything but the pipe character and be mindful of the spaces. The TERM is appended to the end of the URL that is associated with the TAG. So if the TAG wiki, translates to http://en.wikipedia.org/Wiki/ then the TERM will immediately follow the URL (i.e. http://www.en.wikipedia.org/Wiki/TERM).

You cannot, at the moment, specify for the TERM to be composed in center or other parts of the link. It is something that I would like to add in the future.

What can I use for the TEXT? / Do I have to use the TEXT?

The TEXT field can be any character besides an open bracket style that is currently set (],),}) for the links. The field is mandatory, in the future, I can remove the requirement if people would like for the [[TAG|TERM]] to translate to the link with the link url itself specified as the link.

Does the URL have to include the http:// ? / Can I use other things like ftp:// ?

You must specify the full url of the link to include the http://. You can also instead specify ftp:// as well. Anything that is acceptable to be placed inside an anchor's href attribute.

What is search engine behavior follow / nofollow?

You can read more about it at wikipedia, but the jist is that search engines will follow links and attempt to index them if you do not specify nofollow. This is not necessarily true for all web crawlers and does not have to be respected.