Help:Wiki University Wikitext--Broken Links

Broken External Links
You will see links that are "broken" as you become more involved in editing in the wiki. These links do not go anywhere or they do not look like links should. This lesson will show some of the mistakes people make in entering links and how to correct them.

Link with no name

 * .
 * NOTICE there is no name of the link, only a number. It was entered like this:


 * 


 * The problem was no space was put after the URL and a name entered.
 * To correct this, you need to put a space after the URL and enter a name you want to appear for the link on the page like this:


 * FamilySearch


 * NOTICE the space between "...org" and "FamilySearch."
 * The corrected link will now appear this way:


 * FamilySearch

Link with URL as name

 * https://familysearch.org
 * NOTICE this does not look like an external link should. There should only be a name not the URL. It was entered like this:


 * https://familysearch.org


 * The problem was not that there was a space after the URL but the URL was entered as the name.
 * To correct this, you need to replace the second URL with an appropriate name.


 * FamilySearch


 * The corrected link will now appear this way:


 * FamilySearch

Link in HTML coding

 * &lt;a href="https://familysearch.org&gt;FamilySearch&lt;/a&gt;
 * NOTICE this is how an external link looks on the internet. It was entered like this:


 * FamilySearch


 * The problem is the link was entered just like it is on the internet.
 * To correct this, you need to substitute:


 * &lt;a href=" with a [
 * &gt; with a space
 * &lt;/a&gt; with a ].
 * The corrected link:

Familysearch


 * This is necessary because if you paste the URL of a google map location, for example, you will have a link that look like this:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/35+N+W+Temple,+Salt+Lake+City,+UT+84150/@40.770084,-111.8944995,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x8752f507bbf8ff95:0xd342266688092876?hl=en


 * As you can see, the link goes way beyond the right edge of the page. By using the proper wikitext coding, it will look like this:


 * Location of Family History Library


 * NOTICE the space between "=en" and "Location of Family ..."
 * This how it should appear on the page:

Location of Family History Library

Link with no space



 * There is no space between the URL and the name of the link.


 * 


 * NOTICE that it create a numbered link.
 * NOTICE when you click on the number it takes you a page that does not exist.
 * Put the space between the URL and the name and it will work ok.

Broken Internal Links
There are a lot of different ways to break an internal link.

Using a space instead of a pipe
Missouri Genealogy Missouri


 * NOTICE the link is red. This means the link will take you to a page that does not exist.
 * NOTICE the space between "Missouri Genealogy" and "Missouri." The name of the page was Missouri Genealogy and the name the patron wanted to call the link was Missouri. If they had used a pipe instead of a space, the coding would have looked like this:


 * Missouri


 * The link on the page would have looked as it should:


 * Missouri

Not having enough square brackets
[Missouri Genealogy|Missouri]


 * NOTICE this time the link is not even red. The browser thinks this coding is a normal sentence.
 * To fix this link, you need to have two square brackets on either end of the coding like this:


 * Missouri

Wrong kind of brackets

 * Curly brackets were used instead of square brackets.
 * The browser thinks we are trying to enter a "Template."
 * Curly brackets are used in templates which we will cover in a later lesson.

Try these out
 Exercises Copy and paste these codes for broken links in your sandbox and see if you can fix then: Check your answers >
 * 
 * &lt;a href="https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Missouri&gt;Missouri&lt;/a&gt;
 * MissouriMissouri
 * []
 * Missouri Missouri

 Quick Quiz
 * How can links be broken?
 * A. Too many brackets.
 * B. Not enough brackets.
 * C. Wrong kind of brackets.
 * D. No space in an external link between URL and name of link.
 * E. No pipe in an internal link between name of page and name of link.
 * F. Using the URL as the name of the link.
 * G. All of the above.

Check your answers >