Managing Links for Content Reuse

Mark BakerAnalecta Communications Inc.

Links Matter

The web is a hypertext medium So are help systems

A page that does not link to anything is a dead end

Links in HTML

<p>Hawkes‘ final film is a lighthearted Western in the Rio Bravo mold, with <a href="http://www.johnwayne.com/">the Duke</a> as an ex-Union colonel out to settle some old scores.</p>

Hard Links A hard link identifies a resource to link to

Hard links are hard work

Author discovers a resource to link to

Author creates link to chosen resource

Author manages and updates link over time

Hard Linking

Topics contain direct links to other topics

A

B

D E

C

The problem with hard linking If a topic is reused in more than one

location, what do you do about the links?

A

B

D E

C

First use

A

D

C

Second use

F?

Remove all the links?

Lonely topics

A

B

D E

C

A

D

C

First use Second use

F

Externalize the links Move the links to a map file New map file required for each use

Heavy creation and maintenance burden Will tend to limit amount of linking that is practical

First use Second use

Map file for first use

A B

A C

A D

A E

Map file for second use

A C

A D

A F

Soft linking

A soft link identifies the subject that is mentioned

Soft links in XML

<p><director name="Howard Hawkes">Hawkes'</director> final film is a lighthearted Western in the <movie>Rio Bravo</movie> mold, with <actor name="John Wayne">the Duke</actor> as an ex-Union colonel out to settle some old scores.</p>

How do links get made

Topics are indexed by subject

Topic indexing in XML<topic name="john-wayne-bio"> <index> <reference type="actor"> <key>John Wayne</key> </reference> <reference type="producer"> <key>John Wayne</key> </reference> </index> … </topic>

Links discovered via topic indexes

Soft linking != redirection

No resource is identified in any way

Connection is by subject only

No resource has to exist to name a subject

Soft linking and reuse Links are created by querying the available

topics in each place a topic is used

A

B

D E

C

First use Second use

A

D

C

F

What if no topic found?

Sometime there will be no topic in the current set for a reference

A

D

C

F

Not topic, no link!

No broken link, because no link to break

A

D

C

F

Mentions are not links Text must be written so that links are

omissible No “For more information, see …” No “Click here.”

Authors can mark up all significant mentions If there is a topic on that subject, you get

a link If not, no harm done

No link, no problem

Lack of a topic to link to not necessarily a problem There are simply no topics on that

subject in this collection

Or, it may signal something missing from the collection

What if multiple topics found? More than one topic can cover the same subject

Different topics, same subject

<topic name="john-wayne-bio"> <index> <reference type="actor"> <key>John Wayne</key> </reference> <reference type="producer"> <key>John Wayne</key> </reference> </index> … </topic>

<topic name="john-wayne-filmography">

<index> <reference type="actor"> <key>John Wayne</key> </reference> </index> … </topic>

Handling multiple link targets 1

Create a popup with multiple links

Topics on John Wayne

• Filmography

• Biography

Handling multiple link targets 2 Gather all the links

at the end of the topic

More on John Wayne

• Filmography

• Biography

Linking style options

Mentions are not links Therefore, linking style is not determined

at authoring time Mentions are never explicit links, so you

can link inline or out of line in build Ensures consisten style when reusing

content from multiple authors

Also, can use index markup to generate related topics links.

Discovery is expensive

Cost of discovery: hard links

Author has to find the resource to link to each time

Multiple authors linking to the same resource discover it independently

Discovery breaks the author’s stream of thought

Cost increases with size of collection

Cost of discovery: soft links

Authors do not do resource discovery when writing

Just mark up mentions of subjects Mark them all up, it costs nothing

No interrupting flow to find linkable resources

No need to browse the collection

Forward looking How do you link to

topics that do not yet exist?

But you can always mark up mentions of subjects Subjects are always

there Topics on those

subjects may appear later

Future-proof Hard links are

fragile, volatile Require

maintenance

Marked-up mentions of subjects are stable The Duke will

always be John Wayne

Quality

The best topic on a subject is chosen by the author of that topic

Helps validate content

Coverage Reveals missing topics

Duplication Use indexes to detect duplication

Terminology Discover incorrect terms in text or

indexes

Summary Soft linking addresses key linking

challenges Reuse: enables transparent reuse of

topics Discovery: authors don’t have to hunt for

link targets Maintenance: soft links don’t require

much maintenance Quality: subject experts identify the best

resources on a subject

Contact Mark Baker

Analecta Communications Inc. analecta.com +1-613-614-5881 Blog: everypageispageone.com

SPFE Architecture supports soft linking SPFE.info Presentation at CMS/DITA 2012

http://www.cm-strategies.com/2012/abstracts.htm#Baker

Thank you!

Questions?

Contact:

Mark BakerAnalecta Communications Inc.analecta.com+1-613-614-5881everypageispageone.comSPFE.info