Delivered at Xtech2012

1. Managing Links
for Content Reuse
Mark Baker
Analecta Communications Inc.

2. Links Matter
 The web is a hypertext medium
 So are help systems
 A page that does not link to anything
is a dead end

3. 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>

4. Hard Links
 A hard link identifies a resource to link to

5. 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

6. Hard Linking
 Topics contain direct links to other
topics
B C
A
D E

7. The problem with hard linking
 If a topic is reused in more than one
location, what do you do about the links?
First use Second use
C C
B
A A ? F
D E D

8. Remove all the links?
 Lonely topics
First use Second use
C C
B
A A F
D E D

9. 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 Map file for second use
AB AC
AC AD
AD AF
AE

10. Soft linking
 A soft link identifies the subject that
is mentioned

11. 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>

12. How do links get made
 Topics are indexed by subject

13. 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>

14. Links discovered via topic indexes

15. Soft linking != redirection
 No resource is identified in any way

16. Connection is by subject only
 No resource has to exist to name a
subject

17. Soft linking and reuse
 Links are created by querying the available
topics in each place a topic is used
First use Second use
C C
B
A A F
D E D

18. What if no topic found?
 Sometime there will be no topic in the
current set for a reference
C
A F
D

19. Not topic, no link!
 No broken link, because no link to
break
C
A F
D

20. 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

21. 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

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

23. Different topics, same subject
<topic name="john-wayne-bio"> <topic name="john-wayne-
<index> filmography">
<reference type="actor"> <index>
<key>John Wayne</key> <reference type="actor">
</reference> <key>John Wayne</key>
<reference type="producer"> </reference>
<key>John Wayne</key> </index>
</reference> …
</index> </topic>
…
</topic>

24. Handling multiple link targets 1
 Create a popup
with multiple links
Topics on John
Wayne
• Filmography
• Biography

25. Handling multiple link targets 2
 Gather all the links
at the end of the
topic
More on John Wayne
• Filmography
• Biography

26. 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.

27. Discovery is expensive

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. Future-proof
 Hard links are
fragile, volatile
 Require
maintenance
 Marked-up
mentions of
subjects are stable
 The Duke will
always be John
Wayne

32. Quality
 The best topic on a subject is chosen
by the author of that topic

33. Helps validate content
 Coverage
 Reveals missing topics
 Duplication
 Use indexes to detect duplication
 Terminology
 Discover incorrect terms in text or
indexes

34. 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

35. 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

36. Thank you!
 Questions?
Contact:
Mark Baker
Analecta Communications
Inc.
analecta.com
+1-613-614-5881
everypageispageone.com
SPFE.info