• Making links

last modified October 4, 2006 by micate

linking in wicked uses parenthesis

About wicked links

  • how wicked links work
  • why double parenthesis?
  • when you ever support media wiki style linking?


How wicked links work

very simple, wherever you want to invoke a link while editing a wicked activated area, just wrap the word ((double parenthesis)) .  This alerts the system that this text is to be activated for linking.

Currently, this tells the wicked filter to search the system defined scope for appropriate matches based on the contents of the link.  When your text is published it should look like this+

The initial state of the wicked link, usually "add" as signified by the + sign, provides a linked character.  Clicking on this character invokes the wicked action , in this case creating a new document, titled by the text inside the ((double parenthesis)).  Fill in your new page!

Now your link should look this this link+ .

Why double parenthesis?

why not normal wiki syntax? or something else, like media wiki syntax?

In the unofficial words of usability expert Alexander Limi, "Silly Americans assume everyone uses an english keyboard."  Wicked was originally designed for use with Plone , a radically internationalized open source CMS.  Double parenthesis are easy to get to on almost all keyboards. 

Wicked aims to be simple and pervasive .  Double parenthesis don't collide with any other namespace, look nice in text, and are usable everywhere.

When will wicked support media wiki style linking? It's what my users want!

Not anytime in the geologic period. This is a definitive design decision for the project.

2 points along these lines:

  1.  Wicked is not a wiki, it just embodies some of the best concepts of wikis. 
  2.    </b> double square brackets <b> + are great on english keyboards but fall down elsewhere.  If your users learned mediawiki, they should do just fine learning wicked and a nice standard formatting syntax like reST, STX, html, or any other text you want to filter through wicked.   Even text out of mediawiki...