FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Creating Interwiki Links

Current Projects page

Adding Interwiki Links

Purpose

We have a new Wiki extension that allows us to move the link indicating if that Wiki is in another language Wiki on the left sidebar. We will be editing the former Language template at the bottom of the page to create this new link.

Task List

Task List

Project Instructions

Step 1 - Sign up for a page to fix

1. Go to the Task List and put your name next to a Wiki page link in column A.

2. Click on the link to go to that Wiki page. On a google sheet, after you click on the link, a small dialogue box with the URL will appear. You must click that link to open the Wiki page you will work on.

Step 2 - Find the Language Link

1. Once on the Wiki page, make sure you are logged into the Wiki. You will know if you are logged into the Wiki, if you can see your FamilySearch username in the top right hand corner of the screen.

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2. Once you are logged in, you will see a tab in the top right corner of the screen, labeled, Edit Source. Click on that tab and you will now see the wikitext code for the page.

3. Use the scroll bar on the wikitext box and go to the bottom of the page. You will see some wikitext code that looks something like this:

{{H-langs|en=A Checklist of Compiled Sources and Where to Find Them |fr=Modification de Une liste de collections de ressources avec leur provenance}}

This code creates a link to the French Wiki for a similar article on the same subject. That link looks like this:

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Step 3 - Fix the Language Link

4. Once you locate the code at the bottom of the page, you will now alter it to match the coding for an Interwiki link by doing the following:

{{H-langs|en=A Checklist of Compiled Sources and Where to Find Them |fr=Modification de Une liste de collections de ressources avec leur provenance}}

a. Delete {{H-langs|en=A Checklist of Compiled Sources and Where to Find Them |

b. Add 2 square brackets before the "fr" like this: [[fr=Modification de Une liste de collections de ressources avec leur provenance

c. Replace the curly brackets with 2 square brackets }} facing the same way ]]

Step 3

• Go to: https://archive.org/web/. This website has the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine has a history of what a URL used to contain. This will help you know what the page contained so you can Google and locate the page more easily.

Step 4

• In the Wayback machine URL field at the very top of the page, paste in your link. Then press the “Browse History” button
  

Step 5

• You will now see a calendar that lists when the webpage was archived. Choose a date that has a blue or yellow circle around it to see what the page looked like. It is suggested to try a day 2 or 3 years earlier. If the page shows up as a broken link, then try a date a year earlier until you see a web page.

Step 6

• If the Wayback machine does NOT have an original version of the page, try CachedPages.com to see if it contains a copy. Go to: http://www.cachedpages.com/
  

Delete the http:// in the Enter URL field and paste the broken URL.

Step 7

• Once you find the old webpage, review the old page and determine key words to use for when you use Google to locate the new URL.
• Go to Google and search for the new URL.
  • Try taking the beginning portion of the URL to locate a possible page.
  • Try googling the title of the page with quotation marks around it to narrow down your results

EXAMPLE

• For the broken link: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/marriage.html the Wayback Machine gave the original web page
• The title of the page is: Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763–1900 and you can see it is on the Illinois State Archives
• Type in google: Illinois state archives "Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763–1900"
• The first result on the list is: https://www.ilsos.gov/isavital/marriagesrch.jsp and you will see that it is the same page as found in the Wayback Machine.

Step 8

• With the correct new URL, go to the wiki page found on the Task List and replace the broken link with the new one you have found. Be sure to check the page once you have updated it to be sure the new link you added works.

Step 9

• Return to the spreadsheet and record the date in column J and the new URL you used on the Wiki page in column K. You can use column L to add any notes.
  
  

If you can't find a new URL

• If you are unable to locate a new link for the broken URL, put the link and identifying information on this spreadsheet. Leave the reference on the wiki page and we will double check it.
• In column J of the Task List, type, no URL found.