Auto Links

Duster

This feature does dynamic hyperlinking of specified words with their respective URLs. It can be used for both external and internal links.

The feature works like this. You must have auto links enabled for the specific module you want to use it in. Auto Links is a not a site wide feature in that each part of MDP can have it enabled or disabled separately from the rest. You enter a keyword and a corresponding URL. Suppose you have DAN designated as a key word with http://diversalertnetwork.org as the corresponding URL for the News module. Every occurrence of DAN in the text or only the first one (depending upon the configuration) will be replaced with DAN. The HTML for that is <a href="http://diversalertnetwork.org">DAN</a>".

Note that the keyword is not case sensitive so either dan or DAN would work.

When AutoLinks are Activated, the option to Activate/Deactivate AutoLinks for particular modules will appear when editing modules (from Administration -> Modules -> List -> <module name>). Activate AutoLinks for the modules you wish, such as News. AutoLinks has a slight performance cost when activated.

Initially, you will see a screen that looks like this:

Autolinks Add Autolink View Autolinks Modify Autolinks Configuration

Click on Add Autolink to begin adding autolinks

Add Autolink

Autolinks Add Autolink View Autolinks Modify Autolinks Configuration Add Autolink Key (link) word Title URL Comment

USAGE

Key (link) word: enter the word that is to be auto-linked. The keyword is not case sensitive so either DAN or dan would work in this example. This is the text that will be autolinked in an article.

Title: enter the title, what people see when on a mouse-over (when their cursor passes over the word), similar to alternate text with images and in the listing of all AutoLinks.

URL: the URL, absolute (for external links) or relative (for links on your own site)..

Enter the complete URL for the site in the URL field including the "http://" at the beginning of the link if the site is external to your site; otherwise it will not function properly.

If the URL is located on your web site, you can enter the path to the file or the complete URL. For example you can enter "pagename.htm" and AutoLinks will automatically prepend the "http://www.yourdomain.com", resulting in an AutoLink of "http://www.yourdomain.com/pagename.htm". You could also enter "http://www.yourdomain.com/pagename.htm".

Comment: enter optional comments about the link. Comments are visible only to the site administrator.

Click "Create AutoLink" to add the autolink to the database.

Autolinks Add Autolink View Autolinks Modify Autolinks Configuration View Autolinks Key (link) word Title URL Comment Options DAN Divers Alert Network http://diversalertnetwork.org hyperbaric treatment and rescue services, divers insurance and more Edit | Delete

USAGE

View AutoLinks: To view, edit, or delete AutoLinks, click the "View AutoLinks" link. All the AutoLinks in your database will be displayed sorted by Key (link) Word. If you wish to edit an AutoLink, click on the "Edit" link for that AutoLink. A page will be displayed where you can edit all the information about that particular link. Click "Update AutoLink" to save your changes.

To delete an AutoLink, click on the "Delete" link for that AutoLink. A page will be displayed asking you to confirm your request to delete the AutoLink. If you wish to delete the AutoLink, click "Confirm"; otherwise click "Cancel deletion of AutoLink" and the link will not be removed.

Autolinks Add Autolink View Autolinks Modify Autolinks Configuration Modify Autolinks Configuration Only link each item once in each piece of text Remove decoration from autolinks

Modify AutoLinks Configuration: This section allows configuration of how AutoLinks appear on your site.

USAGE

Only link each item once in each piece of text: If this option is checked, then only the first occurrence of a matching key (link) word in the article will be changed into an AutoLink. If this option is unchecked, all occurrences of matching key (link) words in the article will be changed into AutoLinks.

If the function is unchecked, the text of the article would be changed to (in HTML):

"The <a href="http://diversalertnetwork.org">DAN</a> site is a scuba diver hyperbaric treatment site. <a href="http://diversalertnetwork.org">DAN</a>, in conjunction with hyperbaric doctors at Duke University, offers an emergency hotline for medical personnel who treat divers in emergency situations. <a href="http://diversalertnetwork.org">DAN</a> also offers divers insurance that includes air ambulance and evacuation to a hyperbaric chamber."

which would appear to viewers as

"The DAN site is a scuba diver hyperbaric treatment site. DAN, in conjunction with hyperbaric doctors at Duke University, offers an emergency hotline for medical personnel who treat divers in emergency situations. DAN also offers divers insurance that includes air ambulance and evacuation to a hyperbaric chamber."

Remove decoration from AutoLinks: Checking this removes underlining (decoration) from autolinks. Unchecking it will cause them to be underlined.

To add AutoLinks to a specific module:

Select the module(s) that you wish to use AutoLinks on and "Edit" them. For example, Administrators may want the News module to feature AutoLinks. Go to Administration -> Modules -> Regenerate. Select "Edit" next to the News module. From the page that is displayed, check the box next to "Activate AutoLinks for this module" and click "Commit Changes" to save your changes. Repeat for any other modules that you wish to use AutoLinks.

Click "Update AutoLinks Configuration" to save changes.