Title: Link preservation
Last modified: September 1, 2016

---

# Link preservation

 *  [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
 * (@msummers)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/)
 * I have a site with >50 pages. Almost every page has a unique sidebar created 
   using text widgets which happen to contain links to other pages/files within 
   the site. If a link changes (because of a path change, for example), each widget
   containing that link within the primary sidebar widget area must be manually 
   adjusted! Is there any way to avoid this? Ideally, I would like to keep that 
   link adjustment accessible to the (non-developer) administrative user (e.g., 
   not buried in the functions.php file). Or am I stuck creating a long PHP switch
   block as a link shortcode (e.g., [link “products”])?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Moderator [Jose Castaneda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jcastaneda/)
 * (@jcastaneda)
 * THEME COFFEE MONKEY
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/#post-7641919)
 * Hi!
 * One way I can think of would be creating a menu and use that menu with a custom
   menu widget instead of the text widget.
 *  Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
 * (@msummers)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/#post-7641940)
 * Jose – thanks for your reply! This is a good idea, but I don’t see how to implement
   it with my site. Those sidebars have text, images, and multiple blocks of links
   like this –
 * text text text
    link link link image link text text
 * etc.
 * You can see the site at [http://www.fielco.com](http://www.fielco.com). I’m thinking
   I may be stuck with my switch block, but I’m very open to other suggestions!
 *  Moderator [Jose Castaneda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jcastaneda/)
 * (@jcastaneda)
 * THEME COFFEE MONKEY
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/#post-7641953)
 * I see, I see. ( _puts thinking hat on_ )
 * A custom post type widget or even a custom text widget in which you extend it
   to show links? The user picks from a dropdown or puts in an ID for the page it
   would link to? Just sort of thinking out loud right now. 🙂
 * Or better yet: [https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/custom-menu-shortcode](https://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-reviews/custom-menu-shortcode)
 * Create the custom menu and use the shortcode that way?
 *  Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
 * (@msummers)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/#post-7642005)
 * Thanks again, Jose! See, what I’m trying to avoid is what you try to avoid in
   a regular static site when you put your navigation into a server-side include.
   I don’t want to have to enter the same navigation path multiple times for multiple
   sidebar widgets.
 * Using your method with custom post or custom text widgets, how would I embed 
   the link widget within the content widget? Or am I not understanding what you
   are suggesting? I’d like to have something like –
 * text text text
    {link set #1 } text text text {link set #5 }
 * in a sidebar text widget.
 *  Moderator [Jose Castaneda](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jcastaneda/)
 * (@jcastaneda)
 * THEME COFFEE MONKEY
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/#post-7642065)
 * What I was thinking was something like:
 *     ```
       -------
       textarea
   
       menu selection
   
       textarea
   
       menu selection
       --------
       ```
   
 * In a way combine the two widgets into one. Or you could use the above plugin 
   and use the shortcode in the text widget. The menu would be updated as well as
   the links without having to touch the text widget. 🙂
 * Like I was saying, mostly thinking out loud. 🙂
 *  Thread Starter [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
 * (@msummers)
 * [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/#post-7642115)
 * Jose – sorry for the delay! This project has been pushed to a back burner, so
   I’ll re-consider when it bubbles up again.
 * I think the way to do it is somewhat like you describe: just create link module
   shortcodes that can be used in any text widget placed in the sidebar. The trick
   will be to name the shortcodes so that they are easily recognizable!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘Link preservation’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [links](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/links/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [msummers](https://wordpress.org/support/users/msummers/)
 * Last activity: [9 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/link-preservation/#post-7642115)
 * Status: not resolved

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