Adding a link element to an item | HCL Digital Experience

You add a link element to a site area or content item when you want a link to be used for a specific site area or content item.

Before you begin

Note: You can add an element to a content item only if the manage elements feature is enabled in the authoring template that is used by the content item.

Procedure

  1. Open or create a site area or content item.
  2. Click Manage Elements.
  3. Select Link as the element type.
  4. Enter a name. Do not use double-byte and non-ASCII characters.
  5. Enter a display title to use as the title of the element displayed indexes and forms.
  6. If you have created a text provider plug-in for a multi-locale site, you can also select the text provider and enter a key to look up a string from the selected text provider. The text provider displays a different display title for each language it is configured for. The text that is entered in the Display Title field is only used if an appropriate display title is not available from the selected text provider, or if the text provider is not available.
  7. Click OK. The link element is added to your form.
  8. Go to the link element you created.
  9. Select either External URL, or Web Content.
  10. To add a link to a URL, either type or paste the URL in the Type a URL field.
    Note: The inserted URL is rendered relative to the URL of the site area of the currently rendered content item. Internet protocols, such as "Http://", must be added at the beginning of the inserted link if an absolute URL is intended to be rendered.
  11. To add a link to web content, an image component, a file component, or an existing link component, click Browse Content.
    In CF08 or higher, click Browse.
    1. Select the library that the item is stored in.
    2. Select the item to link to.
    3. Click OK
  12. To add a link to a document in the current place, click Browse Libraries.
    In CF08 or higher, click Browse.
    1. Select the library that the document is stored in.
    2. Select the document to link to.
    3. Click OK
  13. Click Link Attributes to set additional settings.
    1. For external URLs:

      Select a link display type:

      Text
      Select this type to display the link as text.
      • Use URL as link text: Select this option to use the URL of the item that is linked to as the link text.
      • Link text: Enter the text to use as the link text. To enter text, you must clear the Use URL as link text check box.
      Image Component
      Select this type to display the link as an image. Click Select Image to select an image component to use as the link image.

      Enter a description of the link by selecting either:

      Use URL as link description
      Select this option to use the URL of the item that is linked to as the link description.
      Enter description
      Select this option to enter the text to use as the link description. To enter a description, you must clear the Use URL as link description check box.
    2. For Web content:

      Select a link display type:

      Text
      Select this type to display the link as text.
      • Use title of linked item: Select this option to use the title of the item that is linked to as the link text.
      • Link text: Enter the text to use as the link text. To enter text, you must clear the Use title of linked item check box.
      Image Component
      Select this type to display the link as an image. Click Select Image to select an image component to use as the link image.

      Enter a description of the link by selecting either:

      Use description of linked item
      Select this option to use the description of the item that is linked to as the link description.
      Enter description
      Select this option to enter the text to use as the link description. To enter a description, you must clear the Use description of linked item check box.

      Enter an optional query string. You can use a query string here as a search parameter in a menu element. For example, you might enter this query string: myquery=shoes You can then specify "myquery" as a search parameter in a menu element.

  14. Select a link target:
    Name
    Select this option to specify the name of the link target.
    New Window
    Select this option to open the link in a new browser window.
    None
    Select this option specify no link target.
    Parent
    Select this option to open the link in the parent frameset of the frame the link appears in, replacing the entire frameset.
    Self
    Select this option to open the link in the current frame, replacing the content in that frame.
    Top
    Select this option to open the link in the current browser window, replacing all frames.
  15. Enter extra attributes, such as style sheet classes or JavaScript. These attributes are used in the same way as using an attribute in a "<a href=" "></a>" tag.
    For example:
    • To create the link tag, <a class="classname" href="http://www.ibm.com"></a> you would enter class="classname" in the Additional attributes field.
    • To create the link tag, <a name="homepage" class="classname" href="http://www.ibm.com"></a> you would enter name="homepage" class="classname" in the Additional attributes field.
  16. Save the item form.