Help for the LinkCollectionSoftware

Find help on ...

... the general elements of all forms
... the form ...
- ... Adding New Link
- ... Edit Link x
  - Shortcut to the Edit Link Form ...
  - ... and from there to the Admin Form for deleting links
- ... Adding New Category
- ... Edit Category x
- ... Administration

General elements of all forms

URL: The exact URL of the link to be entered in the database. Please make sure that the URL is valid. In case of general homepages, it would be better to give here the general URL instead of a more detailed one which may easily alter when files are shifted.
Label: This is the "heading" of each entry in the database which will be linked to the URL given. Please make it as short as possible and put additional information in the description section.
Submitter: The name of the one filling the form; may be an abbreviation or a pseudonym or "Anomyous".
Email of submitter: Please give your email address; don't add "mailto:"; not required.
Language: Language(s) of the site; if a particular language is not listed, use "Other"; by holding the Ctrl-key pressed you may click on more than one language if necessary.
Date: The date of the entry of this link; this field is being entered automatically by the software. Only change it if you have good reason for it (e.g. in case you update an entry) and only in the following format: yyyy-mm-dd. The date will be used by the software to determine whether an entry is new (which will be shown on the site by a NEW-flag for one month after entry.)
Description: Further information (apart from the label) on the link. Should contain an easy-to-read description of the contents of the site. The idea of EuroInternet is to give the user some upfront information on the site s/he will reach via this collection. Don't make it too long, a few sentences should suffic.
Contains HTML: If this check-box is checked the software will interpret any HTML code when reading out the description. This provides the opportunity to include e.g. additional links. Don't use it for images! USE IT WITH MUCH CARE!
Current path: Serves as an orientation-aid: at which level in the hierarchy of categories am I? See below for details of the process of attribution of categories.
Subcategories: In this section all subcateories the URL relates to are marked. Details below.
Order: An integer number (between zero and, say, 1000); this number is used by the database software to determine the place or rank order of a particular link compared to all other links in the same category. It is recommended to use the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40 etc.or even 100, 200, 300, etc. in order to have still free numbers inbetween for further addings.
Links in this category: Contains a list of current links in the category chosen; this is for information only and serves to determine the right number for order; the list starts with the number (ID) of the link, followed by the label and after a slash by the order number of that particular item in this category.
Clone current path: A special check box needed when attributing a link to two categories in the same branch, see special section here.
User: The user-ID of the one entering the data.
Password: The password belonging to the user.

Form "Adding New Link"

For the elements of the form, see above.

You need to fill out all fields except for "Submitter" and "Email". Please don't hesitate to add a description! In case you forgot to fill out one of the required fields, the software will let you know.

Chosing subcategories

Mark the respective category and then click on "Select subcategories"; after a short while you will be presented with the same page as before (with all the information you have previously entered still in the form) but with the sole difference that the section above the button "Select subcategories" presents you with a new choice: The "current path" indicates that you are one level "deeper" in the structure and the window below it presents you with those subcategories still available under this "heading". If you stop here, enter your user-ID and password and press SUBMIT, the link would be attributed to the category you have chosen first and the link would appear just there. You may however go one level or two deeper by again selecting on of the subcategories presented in the window and again pressing the "Select subcateogries" button. The form reappears again, and again the "Current path" tells you at what level in the hierarchy you are and so one and so forth.

In case you want to chose two or more categories, please follow this link.

After you have chosen the category you need to give a number in the field "Order". This number will be used by the software to determine the exact place of the link in the rank order of all links in a particular category. Please chose large spaces between the numbers so that one can easily enter new numbers inbetween.

How to attribute a link to two or more categories

Mark two (or more) categories, press the "Select subcateogries" button and the form will reappear with two (or more) sections for selecting the subcategories. Select again and continue for each section as above.

In particular, don't forget to attribute two (or more) order numbers.

How to put a link in into a subcategory and the related parent category

In this case chose first the "highest" subcategory, i.e. the more general category. Then check the check-box "Clone current path" and then press "Select subcategories". After a few seconds the software reloads the link with the same path twice and you can proceed as above by selecting a subcategory one level "deeper" and so on and so forth.

Shortcut to the form "Edit link"

There is now a new and very comfortable feature: if you browse through the EuroInternet database, there is a shortcut to load a current link into the "Edit link" form. Have a look at this typical entry:

[804] Euromeda – A comprehensive euro-mediterranean partnership platform dedicated to representative organisations of SME's and Craft trades and businesses themselves. Funded by the EU. Free membership and services (languages: English, French) [submitted by Salim SHADID on 29 Jan 2001]

If you move the tip of your mouse between the round closing bracket of the "languages" and the opening square bracket of the "submission" you will realize that there is a hidden link. Clicking on this link will load this link to the editor!

Form "Edit Link x"

For the elements of the form, see above.

In case you don't use the shortcut as described above, you need to know the ID of the link to be edited. The ID is the number in square brackets in smaller letters at the beginning of each link when presented to you while browsing through the database: e.g. no. 423 in this example:

[423] The Amsterdam Treaty site ...but the Treaty isn't there anymore :-( (languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Other) [submitted by MN on 19 Oct 1999]

After you have selected the URL (".../eurolink.pl?cmd=links&link=") for this form, you will first think it is the "Adding Link" form, and indeed it is. In order to change it to the real "Edit Link" form, you need to put a number in the Location-bar of your browser, i.e. you need to change the URL, e.g. into: ".../eurolink.pl?cmd=links&link=423" in case you want to edit link no. 423. AFter you have typed in this ID number you need to press the RETURN key on your keyboard to reload the form with this particular link.

You can then proceed by editing all entries, just in the same way as described above.

Note that, on the Edit Link form, there is also a new link right beside the RESET button which says "DELETE LINK". Clicking on this link will open the administrative page with the respective ID number already inserted in the ID field. Entering User-ID and password and clicking on the DELETE ITEMS button will delete this entry. Be careful! No way to make this undone!

Form "Adding New Category"

For the elements of the form, see above.

In essence adding a new link is just as easy as adding a new link. Just fill out the form. I cannot imagine any difficulties at the moment. If they should arise I shall post additional help here.

BTW: You will not be able to have a subcategory below several other categories...

Form "Edit Category x"

For the elements of the form, see above.

The same as for editing a link applies for editing a category: You need to know first the ID number of that category. The easiest way to find out is to go to the site map where all categories are listed. If you move the tip of your mouse over the label of a particular category, your browser will show you the idea in the "status bar", i.e. on the bottom of your broswer window – e.g. you will read:

http://eiop.or.at/cgi-bin/eurolink.pl?cmd=get&cat=6

.. and know that the ID of the category is "6".

Then, as in the case of the "Edit link" form you need first to load the form which will look at first identical with the "Add new category" form. But you still need to insert the ID number at the end of the URL in the location bar and press the RETURN key.

Form "Administration"

For the elements of the form, see above.

NOTE: THIS FORM IS FOR VERY SPECIAL OCCASIONS ONLY !
PLEASE BE VERY CAREFULL WHEN USING THIS FORM !

This form allows you

to DELETE links and categories
In general, I recommend you NOT to delete items but to EDIT them: in case you have something to add and something to delete: just turn the item to be deleted into the one to be inserted...
- You need to know the exact number of the link or category to delete (see above how to determine the ID of a link or a category).
- Please be CAREFULL not to delete the wrong item!!!
- Then you need to insert your password and user ID
- and press the button "Delete items"
Note that there is now a quicker way of deleting links, see here.
to add users (this is not allowed for "collaborators"/"correspondents" though; in case you have a suggestion, please tell me!).
Check the database for double entries (you don't need to do this! This is the main administrators task....)
Update the links count (you don't need to do this either!)
Show the site map (this is something you can do as well when brosing the database...)
Show all links (this is to help the main administrator with another general function of, i.e. searching for dead links: it is easy to use specialised software to check dead links and other errors if you have all links in one long file as opposed to hundreds of separate pages...), namely: Output for validators: if this options is clicked, all links come out in a special format that is good vor online validator software (see here).
SAVE a Backup copy of the database: Entering User-ID and password and clicking on GET BACKUP will result in a zipped file to be downloaded to your hard disk. Please store it. In case there is a problem with the database, our programmer is able to restore the database from this file.

Back to the administrative page