This document discusses soft linking as an alternative to hard linking for content reuse. Soft linking involves marking up mentions of subjects rather than directly linking to resources. This allows links to be created dynamically based on available topics, enabling transparent reuse of content without requiring maintenance of links. Soft linking also reduces the cost of discovery for authors since they do not need to search for link targets when writing. It helps make content future-proof by linking to subjects rather than volatile resources.

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