It would be nice to have an automatic way to specify links within the same page. Currently it needs to be done manually using HTML. Example:

• HTML "target anchor":
  <A HREF="#jumpA">This is the link</A>
• HTML "named anchor":
  <A NAME="jumpA">This is where it jumps to</A>

Any ideas of automating this? The point is to find a syntax for specifying named anchors and targets that:

• is easy to remember,
• fits the current Wiki Syntax.

-- PeterThoeny - 05 Jul 2000

How about adding to the WikiNamespace? Something along the lines of:

This.AnchorName, Parent.This.AnchorName or WikiWebName.This.AnchorName

or instead of This use Anchor.

-- NicholasLee - 05 Jul 2000
-- PeterThoeny - 15 Jul 2000 (restored from backup)

Relative links in documents are not supported by TWiki. For example it should be possible to write

WikiName#RelLinkName

to link a previously defined mark RelLinkName in the document WikiName. The marks could either be:

• HTML names: <A NAME="RelLinkName"></A> or
• WikiStyle short syntax: e.g. #RelLinkName

-- GeraldCzech - 03 Jan 2001 (added by PeterThoeny)

At work we have a need for named anchor jumps. The big question is (as always) to find a syntax that is intuitive, easy to remember and easy to type.

Take one: "The HTML way"

• Link to named anchor:
  • WebHome#MySection
  • Otherweb.WebHome#MySection
  • [[#MySection]] (link on same topic)
  • [[web home#MySection]]
  • [[Otherweb.web home#MySection]]
• Define named anchor:
  • #MySection (typed at the beginning of a line)
• Pros and cons:
  • [ PeterThoeny ] Pro: Easy to remember for HTML freaks
  • [ PeterThoeny ] Con: Not so intuitive

Take two: "at some place in a topic"

• Link to named anchor:
  • WebHome@MySection
  • Otherweb.WebHome@MySection
  • [[@MySection]] (link on same topic)
  • [[web home@MySection]]
  • [[Otherweb.web home@MySection]]
• Define named anchor:
  • @MySection (typed at the beginning of a line)
• Pros and cons:
  • [ PeterThoeny ] Pro: Easier to remember, I vote for this.

Take three: "Anchor name space", or "This name space"

• Link to named anchor:
  • WebHome.Anchor.MySection
  • Otherweb.WebHome.Anchor.MySection
  • [[Anchor.MySection]] (link on same topic)
  • [[web home.Anchor.MySection]]
  • [[Otherweb.web home.Anchor.MySection]]
• Define named anchor:
  • Anchor.MySection (typed at the beginning of a line)
• Pros and cons:
  • [ PeterThoeny ] Pro/Con: The OO way
  • [ PeterThoeny ] Con: "Anchor.MySection" looks like a link to a different web.

Questions:

• Should the anchor jump be hidden or shown? I presume shown.
  • Type:
    Link to SomeTopic@MyAnchor and Otherweb.SomeWhere@AnAnchor.
  • Show:
    Link to SomeTopic@MyAnchor and SomeWhere@AnAnchor.
• Should the anchor definition be hidden or shown? I presume hidden.
  • Type:
    @MyAnchor and some text.
  • Show:
    and some text.
• How restrictive should the anchor name be? A WikiName, or any [a-zA-Z0-9_] or something else? If it is not restrictive enough it could have unwanted side-effects when defining an anchor, like in
  @myanchor, or
  #anchor that looks like a comment

Thoughs? (Add new syntax idea; add your opinion regarding existing proposals to the "Pros and cons" bullets.)

-- PeterThoeny - 23 Feb 2001

How about defining an anchor: #WikiName#, or @WikiName@. Then #WikiName# would not be an anchor.

Furthermore, we should keep anchor names in WikiName form as that follows the general WikiWiki way.

If we have something like Section#Anchor, we can spilt on the # boundary and have a link to the Section on the left side of the # and a link to the anchor on the right.

-- NicholasLee - 23 Feb 2001

Implemented the following syntax and commited to TWikiAlphaRelease:

• Link to named anchor:
  • WebHome#MySection
  • Otherweb.WebHome#MySection
  • [[#MySection]] (link on same topic)
  • [[web home#MySection]]
  • [[Otherweb.web home#MySection]]
  • [[go home][WebHome#MySection]] (See ArbitraryTextForWikiWordLinks)
• Define named anchor:
  • #MySection (Needs to be a WikiWord; typed at the beginning of a line)

Limitation: The current [[#MySection]] rule fails in included topics! FIXME: Need to add topicName parameter to getRenderedVersion().

-- PeterThoeny - 23 Feb 2001

Due to good feeback I changed the anchor syntax from "@MyAnchor" to "#MyAnchor, e.g. the normal HTML way. Above text is fixed, and commited the change to the TWikiAlphaRelease.

Note: You do not need to create an anchor for each heading; headings have their anchor name automatically built. SectionTitles has more.

-- PeterThoeny - 28 Feb 2001

TopicClassification:

FeatureDone