SID-02216: Automatic conversion of a specific word into a link.

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	6.0.2	Perl version:	5.24.0
Category:	CategoryDocumentation	Server OS:	CentOS 6.5 Final	Last update:	9 years ago

Hi!

I am trying to setup a TWiki for a research group at my institution. The problem I am facing is that a certain keywords, say 'ProjectX' is getting converted into a link no matter where I put it including the banner of the web home.

During the course of the configuration of the TWiki, at some point I had setup 'ProjectX' to be a web topic. And then in order to create a new topic, I deleted this one and setup a new one. But wherever I type 'ProjectX' it is still getting converted into a link. The balloon tip for this link keep saying, "This topic does not exist; you can create it."

I have tried searching the forums for a possible solution but have not been able to figure out what to do. I'd really appreciate if someone in the community can point me in the right direction.

-- TWiki Guest - 2016-06-24

Discussion and Answer

That's a difficult one...

For "quick" creation of valuable content it is very convenient to create WikiWordLinks by just typing them, and then letting everyone create missing content "top down" by simply filling the gaps. So, yes, in general, this is an intended behaviour. Unfortunately it isn't always what you want.

TWiki doesn't have (or doesn't have it yet ) a feature to explicitly exclude certain words from autolinking. But there are various ways to get around it.

• If you prefix a wiki word with an exclamation mark like this !WikiWord, then no link will be created - and the exclamation mark will not be shown when viewing the topic. I would have expected this to be explained in TextFormattingRules, and, well, it is, sort of, but in the wrong place. You could find it under "external links". I consider this a bug and copied the same text to the WikiWordLinks section, where I think it is most appropriate.
• Often I've simply created the ProjectX topic (see? that's the exclamation mark at work: No link!). As content for such topics I've used a list of entry URLs relevant for the topic, within and outside of the wiki.
• In sections wrapped between <noautolink> and </noautolink>, wiki words are not converted to links. If you want a link, you enclose it in double brackets '[[...]]', in which case it doesn't even matter whether the enclosed text is a wiki word or not.
• As a per-topic, or per web preference, you can set the NOAUTOLINK variable to the same effect. That's a bit cumbersome, because some TWiki features (e.g. the user's signatures) won't be converted to links in that case, too.

-- Harald Jörg - 2016-06-24

Install and use the StopWikiWordLinkPlugin to disable linking of specific words.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2016-06-24

Ouch! I missed that plugin. Thanks!

-- Harald Jörg - 2016-06-24

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