Off-topic? How to embed hyperlink in db-stored text?

[Nathan Eric Probst <pr...@pond.net>]

Struts Users,

I know this is a little off topic, but I figure someone here has
encountered my dilema before and solved it. (elegantly, I hope!)

I am building a website for a client and I want to enable them to update
their own pages and site structure.  One of the challenges that I have
not yet solved is how to insert a hyperlink into a text paragraph while
editing (via a web interface), without simply writing the whole tag in a
static manner.

For example, say you are typing out a paragraph and realize that a
particular word should be linked to another page in the site (or another
site).  How to do this?  Particularly, how to represent the link in the
UI, but hide the implementation complexity from the non-technical user.
And, how to store the resulting information in the database, so that it
can be reconstituted upon page generation.

Maybe a custom tag that takes a string previously pulled from the
database and converts some markers into the appropriate anchor tags?

Thanks for your ideas,
Nathan Probst

Re: Off-topic? How to embed hyperlink in db-stored text?

[Ted Husted <ne...@husted.com>]

On 1/17/2001 at 1:42 AM Nathan Eric Probst wrote:
> One of the challenges that I have not yet solved is how to insert a
hyperlink into a text paragraph while editing (via a web interface),
without simply writing the whole tag in a static manner.

An approach used by BBS's and Wikis to use some type of simplified,
pidgin HTML to represent "safe" constructs. 

For example < http://public.wxxi.org/ubb/ubbcode.html >

I took quick look at what the Jive BBS gang was up to, but it didn't
seem like they were using attributes (at least yet).

< http://www.coolservlets.com/jive/ >

For quick and easy dynamic links, Wikis usually have a way to quick
refer to another page in the same context, or sometimes highlight
references automatically. 

One full featured Wiki is 

< http://kehei.com/kehei/doc/WikiWikiWeb.html >



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