The Short Links plugin / Quick Links plugin allows to quickly create links from one post to another without needing to enter cumbersome HTML syntax like: <a href="destination">link title</a>. This is especially useful for forums or manuals in which you probably do not allow plain HTML links anyways.

This plugin provides a toolbar button which lets you select a link destination post and then offers several options:

• Quickly insert a link with short link syntax like [[destination-slug]]
• Easily insert a link with short link syntax and additional options like [[destination-slug .class _target title]]
• Quickly insert a snippet of a post into another post or message

Short Link Syntax

This plugin acts as a renderer plugin with support for a variety of syntax options, like:

((destination-slug))
((destination-url))
((123))

((destination text to display))
((#anchor text to display))
((destination#anchor text to display))

((destination .class text to display))
((destination .class1.class2 text to display))

((destination .class _target text to display))

All these syntaxes can be used with [[...]] as well as ((...)) (which produces a slightly different behavior if no text to display is specified; see below.)

If you use the toolbar button, you will have easy access to these options:

Inserting with options…

Below are more details about the syntax…

Specifying the destination

There are 3 possible forms to specify the destination of the link:

• Enter the Slug of a post. For example ((short-links-plugin)) or [[short-links-plugin]] will create a link like this: Short Links / ForeverLinks / Quick Links Plugin
• Enter a Slug in CamelCase. For example ((ShortLinksPlugin)) or [[ShortLinksPlugin]] will create a link like this: Short Links / ForeverLinks / Quick Links Plugin
• Enter the full URL to an external site. For example [[http://fplanque.com]] will create a link like this: http://fplanque.com

Specifying class names (6.9.2+)

Classes MUST start with a . . Multiple classes can be separated by ..

Classes are optional. If they are specified they must be specified in the second position (after first space). Any . that comes later (after second space) will be considered part of the Link Title.

Examples:

[[post-slug .btn.btn-info]]
[[short-links-plugin .btn.btn-default text one]]
[[ShortLinksPlugin .btn.btn-primary text two]]
[[http://fplanque.com .text-warning text three]]

Specifying a Target (6.9.2+)

The target MUST start with a _ .

Target is optional. If specified, it must be specified after optional classes and before the title. Any _ that comes later will be considered part of the title.
Examples:

[[post-slug .btn.btn-info _blank]]
[[http://fplanque.com .text-warning _blank text three]]
`((#anchor _top link words))`

Specifying a Link Title / Link Text

The link title is/text to display optional (see below). You can add an explicit text to display after the destination (separate with space). For example:

• [[short-links-plugin text one]] will create a link like this: text one
• [[ShortLinksPlugin text two]] will create a link like this: text two
• [[http://fplanque.com text three]] will create a link like this: text three

Omitting the title / Automatic title

The link title/text to display is optional. If you don’t specify a title, the ((...)) and the [[...]] syntaxes behave differently:

• With [[...]], if you don’t specify a link title, the plugin will try to use the title of the destination post (works with slugs & CamelCase). Example: [[ShortLinks]] becomes: Short Links / ForeverLinks / Quick Links Plugin
• With ((...)), if you don’t specify a link title, the plugin will display each word of your link and capitalize the first letter of each word. Example: ((ShortLinks)) becomes: Short Links

When using the form ((...)), it is interesting to have several slugs for each destination post. This allows you to easily use links in text. For example:

The ((ShortLinks)) functionality is provided by the ((ShortLinksPlugin)).

becomes:

The Short Links functionality is provided by the Short Links Plugin.

CamelCase Syntax

There is an option you can turn on in the Plugin Settings (Per Collection / Blog) to link any CamelCase word, even without brackets.

Inserting a Snippet + Link (6.9.3+)

This is the third option provided by the toolbar button:

This allows you to insert a full snippet + image. This is particularly useful when referencing a post in a Newsletter for example.

Per-collection settings (6.11.3+)

Optimizing URLs

• If the option to identify and keep just the slug for absolute URLs that references a collection in the system is checked, then [[http://blog.b2evolution.net/whatever/recognized-slug xxx]] will be converted to [[recognized-slug xxx]] and it will be saved to the source text; this is not just rendering.
• Similar to the above, when option to identify and keep just the slug for reference URLs that references a collection in the system is checked, then [[/anything/whatever/recognized-slug xxx]] or even [[/recognized-slug xxx]] will be converted to [[recognized-slug xxx]].