Help:Wiki University Wikitext--Broken Links

Examples of "broken" internal and external links
In the following material are examples of links that were entered incorrectly. Some links actually work but they don't look right. We refer to them as "broken" links. In this lesson, you will see some of the mistakes people make in entering links and how to correct them.

External link with no name
. It was entered like this:
 * NOTICE there is only a number rather than a name.
 * However, if you click on the link will take you to what was intended, you just don't know what the link is too.


 * 

The error is that this external link was not given a name, so the browser gave it a number.

To correct this, you need to put a space after the initial URL and enter a name you want to appear for the link like this


 * FamilySearch


 * NOTICE the space between org and FamilySearch.


 * The corrected link will now appear this way:


 * FamilySearch

Another example of link with no name
 It was entered like this:
 * 


 * There is no space between the URL and the name of the link.
 * NOTICE that it create a numbered link.
 * NOTICE however, when you click on the number it takes you a page that does not exist

How to fix

 * Put the space between the URL and the name of the link.
 * FamilySearch

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


 * https://familysearch.org

The error was that the URL was used as the name of the link rather than a proper 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

External link shows in HTML coding
FamilySearch It was entered like this: FamilySearch
 * NOTICE this is how an external link looks on the internet.

The error is that this external link was entered as HTML coding, not Wikitext.

To correct this, you need to place the URL inside the proper Wikitext external link brackets.

Familysearch

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

 * {Missouri Genealogy}}


 * Here is what the patron entered:


 * Curly brackets were used instead of square brackets.
 * The browser thinks we are trying to enter a "Template." Templates will be covered 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 them: 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