Okay folks, I've taken the template idea that MarkT (all hail the original BEA Addventure and Stories admin!) came up with, and implemented it on the Wiki. Seems to work fine.
Here's how you use it --
Normally, you would create an external link to for example, Google, by putting the URL and link text like this:
[http://www.google.com Google Main Page]
That sort of thing is still going to be blocked by the spammer filter. The workaround involves two new templates,
URL and
URLSecure. Both templates take two arguments, the URL and the link text. For example:
{{URL|www.google.com|Google Main Page}}
URLSecure is the same, but is meant for https (secure http) URLs.
So, to turn an existing external link into a template link,
- replace the starting and ending square brackets with double curly braces
- remove the http:// (or https://)
- insert "URL" or "URLSecure" before the address
- put a pipe sign between "URL"/"URLSecure" and the address
- put a pipe sign between the address and the link text
CAVEAT: If there are other external links in the section or page you are editing, you have to convert ALL of them to use the templates, otherwise it still won't let you save. If your page is divided into sections then you can save some effort by just editing the specific section you want to modify, as Lightfoot suggested above.
Let me know if there are problems....
