MediaWiki

Help:Links

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Thaur's five types o links in MediaWiki:

  1. Internal links til ither pages in the wiki
  2. Ootby links til ither wabsteids
  3. Ootby links til internal pages in the wiki
  4. Interwiki links til ither wabsteids registert til the wiki in advance
  5. Interleid links til ither wabsteids registert aes ither leid versions o the wiki
  1. External links to pages at other websites
  1. External links to internal pages in the same wiki
  1. Interwiki links to other websites using special prefixes registered in advance
  1. Interlanguage links to other wikis registered as different language versions of the current wiki

Please note that this list does not include category links and file links, which are used to place pages into categories and display images or other media files, respectively.

Internal links

To create a so-called internal link to a page on the same wiki (a "wikilink"), use double square brackets wiki markup, [[like this]]. When you preview or save your changes, you will see a link that can be followed to the target page. If the page exists the link is displayed in blue (like the word "create" in the first sentence of this paragraph); if the page does not exist, the link appears red (so the [[like this]] link is actually rendered like this). Note that the colors could be different if the color scheme of the wiki has been changed from the default. Following such a "redlink" to a missing page (whether or not it is actually red) will usually enable the user to create the page.

To markup any arbitrary string of text (not necessarily a page title) as a link, use a "vertical bar" or "pipe" character, like this: [[Help:Categories|category links]] results in the link category links.

The first letter o the tairget page is autæmateeclie capitalised, onless itherwise set bi the admeens, n spaces ar represented aes unnerscores (typin aen unnerscore in the link will hae ae siclike effect aes typin ae space, bit isna recommendit, aes the unnerscore will be shawn in the tex ava).

If the page title you are linking to is that of the page you are editing, the result is not a hyperlink at all but simply bold text (for example, on this page the markup [[Help:Links/sco]] gives the result Help:Links/sco). If you're trying to create a wikilink to the current page, you probably want to link to a specific section or to an anchor within the page; see the examples below.

MediaWiki uses the pagelinks table to keep track of internal wikilinks.

Name/Descreeption Syntax Result
Internal link 
[[Main Page]]

[[Help:Contents]]

[[Extension:DynamicPageList (Wikimedia)]]

Main Page

Help:Contents

Extension:DynamicPageList (Wikimedia)

Piped link 
[[Help:Editing pages|editing help]]

Links to a section/anchor within the target page. 

[[Help:Editing pages#Preview|previewing]]

Internal link til aen ancher fae differant tex 

[[#See also|different text]]

See foreby meta:Help:Piped link.

editing help

previewing

different text

Pipe trick 
[[Manual:Extensions|]]

[[User:John Doe|]]

[[Extension:DynamicPageList (Wikimedia)|]]

[[Extension:DynamicPageList (third-party)|]]

The transformation done by the pipe trick can result in the same text for different link targets, as seen in the DynamicPageList examples.

Extensions

John Doe

DynamicPageList

DynamicPageList

Waird-endin links 
[[Help]]s

[[Help]]ing

[[Help]]ers

[[Help]]almostanylettersyoulikehere

[[Help]]BUTnotalways

Follows so-called "linktrail rules" localised per each language.

Helps

Helping

Helpers

Helpalmostanylettersyoulikehere

HelpBUTnotalways

Avoidin waird-endin links 
[[Help]]<nowiki />ful advice

[[wikipedia:GNU General Public License|GPL]]<nowiki />v3

Helpful advice

GPLv3

Internal link til aen ancher 
[[#See also]]

Anchors are provided automatically on section headings and to the top ([[#top]]) of the page.

#See also
Settin aen internal link ancher 
<div id="Unique anchor name 1">optional text</div>

<span id="Unique anchor name 2">optional text</span>

Rendered block-level and inline, respectively. Doing this would allow for [[#Unique anchor name 1]] on the same page or [[Help:Links/sco#Unique anchor name 1]] on a different page. Omit the "optional text" for an invisible anchor.

Setting an anchor in a section heading 

==<span id="Alternate Section Title"></span>Section heading==

Note the placement. This must be a "span" tag, not a "div". (Such anchors allow sections to be retitled without breaking incoming links.)

optional text

optional text

Section heading
Link til aen ancher oan anither page 
[[Help:Images#Supported media types for images]]
Help:Images#Supported media types for images
Link til the nou page's tauk page 
[[{{TALKPAGENAME}}|Discussion]]

See Mageec wairds#Page names ava.

Discussion
Link til ae subpage 
[[/example]]

Shortcut for [[Help:Links/example|/example]]. See also Help:Subpages .

/example
Link til ae subpage wioot the leadin slash 
[[/example/]]

Shortcut for [[Help:Links/example|example]].

example
Link to a subpage of parent page for current page. Can only be used on subpages. 
[[../example2]]

Shortcut for [[Help:Links/example2|example2]] if you post the link on [[Help:Links/example|example]] page.

example2
Internal link til ae categerie page 
[[:Category:Help]]

Without the leading colon the link would not be visible and the page would instead be placed into the category; this is a very common mistake. See Help:Categeries ava.

Category:Help
Internal link til aen eemage or ae file o ither types

File:Example.jpg

file label

Media:Example.jpg

file label

Internal link til the uiser's uiser page 
[[Special:MyPage]]

[[Special:MyTalk]]

[[Special:Preferences]]

Special:MyPage

Special:MyTalk

Special:Preferences

Internal link to a specific revision 
[[Special:PermanentLink/2393992]]

Revision numbers can be found in each page's edit history. (It is very common to see links to specific revisions implemented as external links because it's easy to cut-and-paste an entire URL to form an external link.)

Special:PermanentLink/2393992
Internal link to a "diff" 
[[Special:Diff/2393992]]

[[Special:Diff/2390639/2393992]]

The default (in the first example above) is to show the changes from the previous revision. See also the comments in the previous item.

Special:Diff/2393992

Special:Diff/2390639/2393992

Reguidal 
#REDIRECT [[Main Page]]

Should be the first and only line on the page. See Help:Redirects .

  Main Page

Ootby links

Tae add aen external link, enclaise the URL follaed bi space n the name o the page that ye want tae link til in single square brackets. Whan ye hain the page, ye'll see the new link pointin til yer page, wi ae triangle icon efter it tae shaw that it wis coded wi single bracket external link syntax, n thus micht lead til anither steid.

Descreeption Ye type Ye get
Ootby link wi differant label 
[https://mediawiki.org MediaWiki]
 MediaWiki
Nummered ootby link 
[https://mediawiki.org]

This is what happens if you omit the link text. Multiple links of this type on the same page are numbered sequentially.

[1]
Ootby link 
https://mediawiki.org

URLs beginning with "http://" and "https://" are automatically linked, even when no brackets are used.

https://mediawiki.org
Avoiding auto-linked URLs 
<nowiki>https://mediawiki.org</nowiki>
https://mediawiki.org
Protocol-relative external link 
[//en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia]

[//en.wikipedia.org //en.wikipedia.org]

The link will be HTTP or HTTPS depending on the protocol of the page currently being viewed (which could be different for different users). This is only supported inside of square brackets [ ]. Using "//en.wikipedia.org" by itself does not result in a link.

Wikipedia

//en.wikipedia.org

Ootby link til the same host 
https://{{SERVERNAME}}/pagename
 https://www.mediawiki.org/pagename
Ootby link til ither host passin the pagename 
https://google.com/search?q={{PAGENAMEE}}

See also: URL encoded page names, Manual:PAGENAMEE encoding

https://google.com/search?q=Links
Mailtil link 
[mailto:info@example.org email me]
 email me
Mailtil named wi subject line n bodie 
[mailto:info@example.org?Subject=URL%20Encoded%20Subject&body=Body%20Text info]
 info
Custom URI 
[skype:echo123 call me]

Any URI you wish to add needs to be first declared through $wgUrlProtocols . (This example is not enabled on mediawiki.org)

[skype:echo123 call me]

Using email links

Email links use mailto: before the address. They're written like this: [mailto:anyone@example.org address name] (resulting in address name). If there's no name, the address is automatically numbered, like this: [mailto:anyone@example.org] becomes [2]. Addresses without square brackets won't be linked, e.g., anyone@example.com. You can also add a CC using [mailto:anyone@example.org?cc=anyone2@example.org address name] (resulting in address name). To add a subject, use [mailto:me@me.com?subject=Me] "

Ootby links til internal pages

Tae add ae link til ae page oan the same wiki uisin URL speirin boonds, ye micht need tae uise ootby link syntax.

Descreeption Ye type Ye get
Ootby link til the nou page's eedit page 
[https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Links&action=edit Edit this page]

[{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|action=edit}} Edit this page]

See Mageec wairds n Ootby links ava

Edit this page

Edit this page

Ootby link til the nou page's eedit page, n styled tae luik like aen internal link 
<span class="plainlinks">[https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Help:Links&action=edit Edit this page]</span>

The plainlinks class can be uised in cases whaur ye want aen ootby link tae luik like aen internal link, bi suppressin the icon that normallie kiths efter it.

Edit this page

The arrow icon

Some skins add an arrow icon after each external link by default. However, this can be avoided by using class="plainlinks". For instance:

  • [http://a a] gives a
  • <span class="plainlinks">[http://a a]</span> gives a

Using Linksearch

Special:Linksearch is a built-in tool that helps find pages linked to a specific URL. By using the externallinks table, it generates a comprehensive list of page names where the link originates, along with the complete target link for each source page. You can search in all namespaces or just one. It supports wildcard (*) use, so you can search by top-level domain (e.g. [3]), second-level domain (e.g. [4]), etc. or refine your search by specifying parts of the URL e.g. [5].

Notes:

  • Avoid including "http://".
  • The program might not return any results if there is a colon in the URL.
  • MediaWiki page names in URLs should have underscores instead of spaces. The Linksearch function also requires underscores in URLs.
  • Linksearch is sensitive to capitalization, multiple underscores, and the use of "index.php". It may not find alternative URLs even if they lead to the same target. Therefore, when creating an external link, it's best to use the canonical form of the URL. If the address bar displays a modified URL after following a link, update the URL in the link accordingly for optimal use of Linksearch.
  • The list is sorted by URL, using standard page name order. Note that an underscore, unlike a blank space, is alphabetically positioned between "Z" and "a".

Using backlinks

Normally, internal links within a project are easy to spot and useful for finding related pages. But when there's a mix of internal and external links, it can be tricky to track backlinks, it necessitates the use of both "Help:What links here" and "Linksearch". However, for links to specific sections or anchors, it's possible to include both an internal link and, with CSS styling using "display=none" an external link to provide backlink.

External links are better than interwiki links. With Linksearch, you can even find backlinks to specific sections or anchors. So, combining both internal and external links while hiding the external ones "<span style="display:none">http://...</span>", gives us the best of both worlds.

Limitations

  1. External links doesn't support Word-ending links.
  2. External links doesn't count toward Special:WhatLinksHere (What links here).

Interwiki links

Interwiki links ar links wi the internal link maurkup til ae wabsteid registerit in advance. Fer example, ye can link til the Sunflower airticle oan http://en.wikipedia.org bi typin [[wikipedia:Sunflower]], this will ootcome in ae link wikipedia:Sunflower. This is cause http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ is registerit til yer wiki bi defaut wi the prefix o wikipedia. (This link micht na wairk richt gif the admeen o yer wiki haes chynged the settin.) Onlike internal links, interwiki links dinna uise page exeestance detection, sae aen interwiki link will kith aes blue even gif the page disna exeest oan the remote wiki. For example, you can link to the article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower by typing [[wikipedia:Sunflower]] or, on this wiki, the shorter [[w:Sunflower]]. Both will result in a link wikipedia:Sunflower. This works because by default MediaWiki configures wikipedia: as an "interwiki prefix" that turns into https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ when used inside [[ ]]. (It may not work if the admin of your wiki has changed the setting.) Unlike internal links, interwiki links do not use page existence detection, so an interwiki link will appear blue even if the page does not exist on the remote wiki.

Siclike til internal page links, ye can cræft piped links, wi alternate link label, e.g. [[wikipedia:Sunflower|muckle yellae flouer]] is the link muckle yellae flouer n [[wikipedia:Sunflower|]] is the link Sunflower.

Basiclie, interwiki links ar abbreeveeations fer commynlie uised langer external links. Ae fair siclike link coud be cræftit aes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflower muckle yellae flouer].

Mair details ar at Manual:Interwiki n Help:Interwiki linkin. See the defaut interwiki prefixes. Tae eedit the $1 buird oan yer steid. Your wiki may have a Special:Interwiki page listing the interwiki prefixes it supports; here is the default interwiki list. You can edit the interwiki table on your site.

Interleid links

If your wiki has other language versions, you may find interlanguage links in the sidebar, just below toolbox in a section titled “in ither leids.”

In wiki markup an interlanguage link looks very much like an interwiki link, but behaves similarly to a category link in that it is rendered in a special way. While category links appear in a special list at the bottom of the page (usually), interlanguage links appear in a special list in the sidebar of the page (or elsewhere, depending on the wiki's configuration and the skin used).

The purpose of interlanguage links is to link pages on the same topics in different languages. To create an interlanguage link, type [[language prefix:page name]] anywhere in the page (preferably at the bottom, like category links); the language prefix is the prefix specified at your wiki for the other language version (typically the ISO 639-1 language code). The interlanguage link is unilateral, it does not point back from that page in the other language. For that purpose, an equivalent back-link needs to be placed there as well. It does not work like the "Edit links" in the languages section of Wikipedia-language versions. But it can be used across all name spaces, including 'User:' to point to ones other profiles in other languages.

Gif ye want tae get the interleid link tae kith in the content o the page raither than in the sidebaur, ye can add ae colon afore the leid prefix:

[[:en:Sunflower]] → en:Sunflower

Whan ae link is baith interwiki n interleid, the order is wikipedia:en:Sunflower.

For more information, see m:Help:Interwiki linking#Interlanguage links.

Anchors

Linking to an anchor

Links in the format [[#anchor_name]] will direct to the first matching anchor on the page, typically corresponding to the first identical section heading.

You can add an [[#anchor_name]] to a link, directing it to the first matching section heading (or anchor) on the named page:

[[Help:Editing#Advanced editing]]

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Editing#Advanced_editing

Using an automatic anchor

Section headings serve as anchors, using the heading text as the anchor name. If there are multiple sections with identical headings, each subsequent occurrence is appended with "_2", "_3", etc.

The anchor #toc links to the page's table of contents, except when there's a section titled "toc."

A manual anchor

Manually-set anchors are beneficial for linking to "unlinkable" elements such as tables (titles or cells) or sections of plain text. For instance, in the External links to internal pages section above, although the column text "Description" resembles a (minor) heading, it is not.

There are several methods to set an anchor at any position:

  • The "anchor" template, if it exists on your wiki, specified as {{Anchor }}, offers a standardized method to create anchor points. Place the template where you want, using the syntax {{Anchor|Name_of_Anchor}}. For instance, {{Anchor|Description}} is placed in the "Description" column of the table below the "External links to internal pages" section. Clicking on #Description links to that anchor point created on the table. The anchor is only visible via the source code.
  • Use the generic anchor tag <span id="anchor_name">some text</span> with optional text for visible anchors. For hidden anchors, omit the text. To point to the anchor use [[#anchor_name]].
  • Avoid using manual HTML headings like <h2>Editing Instructions</h2>. This text serves as an anchor_name.
  • In certain instances, adding an ID attribute similar to HTML within a Wiki-element is necessary. Take, for instance, the table mentioned earlier, titled External links to internal pages:
border="1" class="wikitable" id="You type"
  • A top of a page can be accessed using the reserved term [[#top]].

See also Help:Section#Linking sections using an arbitrary id.

Using Linksearch anchors

As mentioned above, if external link style is used, e.g. [6], we can use Special:Linksearch: [7].

When using Linksearch, it's helpful to add leading zeros to numerical anchor names to prevent unintended matches. For example, instead of searching for "1", use "01" to avoid including "10". This practice is seen in w:Portal:Current events/DateHeader2. Similarly, if there are anchors like "a" and "ab", using "_a" can distinguish them in search results.

Anchorencode

The #anchorencode parser function encodes input to use as an anchor. For example, to external link to #Using linksearch anchors above, you would use https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links#{{anchorencode:Using Linksearch anchors}}, which resolves to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Links#Using_Linksearch_anchors

Subpage feature

MediaWiki has a subpage feature that may or may not be active depending on the project and namespace. If it's activated, the following rules apply; otherwise, "A/b" is simply a standalone page with that name.

A page's tree structure is formed using forward slashes in page names: A/b is considered a subpage of A, making A the parent of A/b; additionally, A/b/c is a subpage of A/b; meanwhile, A/a, A/b, and A/c are categorized as sibling pages.

The subpage body automatically displays links to all parent pages without needing specific wikitext. These links appear even if the parent page doesn't exist. However, if any ancestor page in the sequence is missing, the chain of links will stop before that point. Additionally, the capitalization of letters after the forward slash in the page name matters, meaning "/subpage" and "/Subpage" refer to different pages.

The functions, What links here and [Help:Related changes|]] do not consider these automatically generated links."

When the subpage feature is enabled within a namespace, any forward slash in a page's name automatically creates a subpage structure, regardless of whether it was intended or not.

You can find a list of subpages using Special:PrefixIndex.

Using variables

When utilizing the subpage feature within namespace A on page A:B/c/d, {{BASEPAGENAME}} shows B/c while {{SUBPAGENAME}} shows d.

Using relative links

Within a subpage hierarchy, you can utilize the following relative links:

  • [[../]] links to the parent page of the current subpage. For example, on page A/b, it takes you to page A, and on page A/b/c, it directs you to page A/b.
  • [[../../]] links to the grandparent page of the current subpage. For example, on page A/b/c, it points to page A.
  • [[../s]] links to a sibling page of the current subpage. For example, on page A/b, it leads to page A/s.
  • [[../../s]] links to an "uncle" page of the current subpage. For example, on page A/b/c, it points to page A/s.
  • [[/s]] links direct to a subpage. On page A, it functions similarly to [[A/s]]. However, linking from a namespace with an enabled subpage feature to a main namespace page starting with "/" requires a workaround: adding a colon before the page name.

Relative links remain functional even when all pages within a hierarchy are renamed to reflect a change in the root's name, even if the root becomes a child of a new parent. Users with the appropriate permissions, such as administrators and those with the move-subpages right, have the option to move both the main page and its subpages during a renaming process.

Learn more about subpages at w:Wikipedia:Subpages. See examples at Help:Link/example and Help:Link/example/example2

Subpage activation

This feature is only enabled in namespaces specified in the $wgNamespacesWithSubpages configuration setting, either its default namespaces, or any additional namespaces set in LocalSettings.php

Character conversion

The guidelines outlined in m:Help:Page name state that in wiki and interwiki links, conversions are made to non-literal characters automatically. For example,"[[Help:Page%20name]]" will display as "m:Help:Page name". Conversely, external links operate oppositely; literal characters are transformed into non-literal characters. For example, browsers typically convert ".../wiki/!" to ".../wiki/%21".

Applying a code like %70 to a redirect deactivates it, even though the link remains accessible from the redirect page. To ensure a successful redirect, the redirect page displays the canonical form of the target, unlike the preview page which shows the link in its regular format.

Miscellaneous

Some additional effects of links

  • Related changes
  • Backlinks, Linksearch
  • When you include a space after the pipe symbol ([[main Page| ]]), the outcome can vary depending on the browser. In some cases, it might only display a space (" "), without creating a clickable link. However, it's still recognized as a link by the "what links here" feature.

"Hover box" on links

In certain web browsers, when you place the cursor over a link, a tooltip may appear, displaying the content of the link's HTML title attribute. MediaWiki assigns different values to this attribute depending on the type of link: for internal wikilinks, it displays the page name and (page does not exist), if the page does not exist; for interwiki links, it displays the page name with a prefix; and for external links, it displays the URL.

The browser might also display similar information in its status bar, possibly showing which section it belongs to.

Using a piped link, even if it isn't clicked, can help clarify acronyms (like displaying "neutral point of view" as NPOV) or adding annotations. Hover boxes can also be created without links, you can customize the hover box content using markup like [[Link title|<span title="hoverbox">Display text</span>]].

You cannot include a title attribute directly within the href element for external links. Nevertheless, you can achieve a similar outcome by using a span element instead, like this: [http://www.example.com <span title="hover text on external link">www.example.com web site</span>] :
www.example.com web site

Retrieving links from a page

The MediaWiki API allows users to retrieve all links from a page. For example, you can utilize the API query called API:Links to achieve this.

Linking to a page from an image

You can utilize images to direct users to other pages. For further details, refer to the guidance on utilizing an image to link to a specific page in the help section.

Limits

An internal wiki link is limited by maximum page title size.

Relatit pages

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