[emacs-wiki-discuss] backlinks

[Markus Hoenicka]

Hi,

I could not find any relevant information about backlinks in the list archive,
so I'd like to ask everyone here for your opinion (I hope I didn't overlook
something obvious).

I'd like to have optional hierarchical backlinks in the files maintained by
EmacsWiki mode. In case this term is not self-explanatory: a backlink is a link
that points back to the page from where a new Wiki file was created (which, in
turn, contains a forward link to the new file). I'd like to know whether anyone
is interested in having this feature, and whether anyone feels capable to code
it (my Elisp is whacky at best).

I'd like to explain briefly why this feature would be useful to me. I use
EmacsWiki as the backend of planner.el. I organize the experiments and results
in my biochemical lab using this planning tool. As a matter of fact, the
resulting Wiki is pretty much structured in terms of project, sub-projects,
sub-sub-projects etc, and individual experiments containing the links to the
data and evaluation. Currently I insert the backlinks manually at the top of my
Wiki files. These backlinks allow me to traverse the structure backwards, that
is from the experiment back to the project.

The backlink is generated from the filename and the backlink of the "parent"
page. Let me give an example (I use the backlinks in boldface) for a Wiki with
the file 'ProJect' as root:

2nd level: **/ ProJect**
3rd level: **/ ProJect / ClinicalSamples**
4th level: **/ ProJect / ClinicalSamples / InCor**

and so on. As you can see, EmacsWiki mode will interpret the links individually,
so you can traverse back to any level in the structure. Code-wise, all you need
to do is to use the backlink of the originating page and add its filename to
obtain the new backlink of the child page.

An added benefit of these backlinks is that you can easily extract them to
display your Wiki e.g. as a mind map.

Any thoughts?

Markus


-- 
Markus Hoenicka
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http://www.mhoenicka.de