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BidirectionalLink

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Some HyperMedia enforce BidirectionalLinks. That means, when you make a link, you automatically make a ForwardLink and a BackLink.

Discussion:

This feature has a great impact on wikis, to make them more userfriendly.

Typically, though, if you've implemented BackLinks, you've already implemented some internal bidirectional link mechanism, whereas most other systems only allow direct creation of ForwardLinks.

The motivation to focus the topic is given in: Wiki:BidirectionalLink

From my own experience I feel, that a mechanism for automatically creating bidirectional links between different wikis would greatly enhance InterWikiing.

Backlinks (by looking at referrer script) for the last 24 hours can be implemented on any web page using [Stephen Downes' referer service] (a single line of javascript). (BrokenLink 2004-04-15 -- StijnSanders)

BidirectionalLinks are better, no doubt, even in data models and every day coding, you might want to know from any item in the system which other items are dependent on it.

But how does it work with links between systems? Let's say a link between two wiki's. Wiki 1 links to a page on wiki 2, so how can wiki 1 register it's page as a BackLink in wiki 2? And if the link ceases to exist, wiki 2 needs to unregister the BackLink in wiki 2? What if wiki 1 just ends it's existance and doesn't unregister with wiki 2? I guess the multiple of questions raised explains why ForwardLink""s were chosen over BidirectionalLink""s. -- StijnSanders

: A WikiAnnotationMediator could easily generate automatic backlinks on the resp. Wiki Annotation Page. It even could indirectly create (kind of) bidirectional links between an arbitrary Webpage and an annotating wiki page. Even if one or both of the bidirectionally linked pages diminished into thin air, the WikiAnnotationMediator could still link the archived versions in google or some other WayBackMachine?. -- FridemarPache

Another name is the ABC link. Some say having more weight on search engines. This is a link trading practice involving three sites instead of just two. They for a triangle link to each other. [BackLinks]

I don't know if anyone else is interested in HTML mazes (i.e. each room is URL page) but it is a bit of a silly hobby of mine (you can hang puzzle clues and stuff in them) and Wiki's are very quick to draw them up but the lack of automatic backlinking except through the title (which is a bit technical for children and leads people towards cheating) is a drawback (having said that non-linkback mazes are better if you are competing with Robots). So who can suggest a fix for this? Has anyone actually come across a maze on a WIki (except the trivial one I did on Twiki) AndrewCates

See AutomaticLinkBack for more.

CategoryWebTechnology