CODEWITHSUNDEEP
mediawikimediawiki-apimediawiki-extensions
user1902689
user1902689

Reputation: 1775

Mediawiki - Automatic two-way links between page sections

I want my MediaWiki install to have two classes of pages. (In the users' eyes - the wiki won't have to know the difference.)

I want some pages to be on topics, and others on sources (name of book, video, etc.)

I want to have a topic page "FAA Licenses" like:

==Medical Certificates==
===3rd Class===
Required for student license, and before student solo flights. {{{link/reference/whatever generally around here to Jeppesen Book#pg27-28}}}

And a source page "Jeppesen Book" like:

==pg27-28==
{{{link to FAA Licenses#3rd Class}}}

These source pages will track the source's (book or video) content. I imagine a source page for a book to have page numbers, and for a video to have start and stop times, or section numbers. (The book or video itself won't be on the source pages.)

So, the source pages will really serve two purposes. First, it will be fairly easy to see which parts of the sources have had notes taken and put into the topic pages. (So non-linear note-taking of sources will be easy -- skipping from source to source on topics, rather than digesting an entire source at once.) Second, it will be easy from a topic page to see where to go back to for a more in-depth review.

There's two issues I'm writing about.

(1) I want the workflow to be the user edits the topic page, putting in links to source pages and sections. I want this one user-addition to automatically make the source page link back to this spot. I want the system to handle the two-way-linking, assuming the user won't be perfect.

(2) I want the user to be able to put links in the topic page to source pages and sections that might not exist yet. I'd need those links to show up as red, to indicate they need to be created. But, still, once created, I want the system to handle the two-way-linking, even if there were multiple red links to the same area. (I could see building up quite a few red links, then having an unorganized "purge" of them by creating the missing pages and sections, and don't want to have to search for all the links to the new areas.) Ideally, I'd love for these source pages to be auto-generated -- so pages and sections were made as links were made to them, and automatically deleted (or at least the backlinks removed) as links were removed to them.

I don't think the MediaWiki what links here functionality does the job. I want this to work on a per-section rather than per-page basis. And, I don't want the user to have to add to each section a "what links here tag" -- I want it to be automatic.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 348

Answers (2)

Wolfgang Fahl
Wolfgang Fahl

Reputation: 15769

The extension Semantic MediaWiki will allow you to get bidirectional linking in a semi-automatic fassion.

https://www.semantic-mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Link_Template shows a high level example.

If you dig deeper into SMW and SemanticForms you'll find how with e.g. SemanticForms you can get a user experience that is close to what you are asking for.

See e.g. http://smw.referata.com/wiki/Discourse_DB and http://www.discoursedb.org/wiki/Main_Page for an application of these principles.

Upvotes: 1

Tgr
Tgr

Reputation: 28160

I don't think there is an easy way to do that. You could write an extension that provides a parser function that your users can enter, save the source page + source section + target page + target section in a database at links update, then use the ParserSectionCreate hook to show links based on that. Or you can create two types of templates and write a bot that keeps them in sync.

Upvotes: 0

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