TheLinker

Invisibles

It is usually desirable to ignore certain files during the process of building links. These may be media files, such as images, sounds, or movies, but they may also be unfinished web pages, alternative page layouts, etc.

Controlling which files/folders are Linked

Files which are ignored everywhere

Media files:
Media files are never linked. These include files with the following extensions (not MacOS file types): {"gif", "jpeg", "jpg", "invis", "tmpl", "acgi", "java", "class", "pdf", "mov", "wrl", "tiff", "tif", "psd", "css", "js","sit","hqx","pct"}

ConferWeb threads:
TheLinker is ConferWeb compatible (ConferWeb website). This means that it ignores numeric html files (such as "12345678.html")

TheLinker.ignore.invis
If a folder being processed contains a text file named "TheLinker.ignore.invis", no file in the folder is modified. This allows folders to be nested, yet gives you control over whether theLinker processes the folder or not. Links will be built pointing into the folder in question, but the files within the folder will not be processed.

MacOS Aliases
If a folder being processed contains an alias to a folder located elsewhere on the disk, links will be built pointing at the folder in question (these links will assume the existence of a "0.default.html" file within the target folder), but the files within the aliased folder will not be modified. If your web server follows aliases (serving the alias target, rather than the alias file itself), this provides a straight-forward means of including one "linked" folder within another.

Names ending in ".invis":
If the name of a file/folder being processed ends in ".invis" the file/folder is ignored. Placing your graphics in a folder named "grfx.invis" (for example) provides a cleaner visual hierarcy and speeds up processing. Just link to the images with an image tag such as the following
<img src=grfx.invis/myimage.jpg>

Finder Labels: (OS9 only)
If a folder (or file) being processed has a Finder label of "Invisible" it will be handled in the same way as one with a ".invis" at the end of the name. A file/folder's Finder label is a separate attribute from file/folder "visible" attribute (see below).

NOTE: The text of Finder labels is machine specific (an index number is really all that's attached to the file). If you transfer your Linked site to another Mac, make sure you check the Finder preferences before you drop the site through theLinker on that machine.

MacOS Invisible files/folders:
The Macintosh OS includes an "invisible" attribute for files and folders. These files hold custom icons, Sherlock indexing files, and other "magic". Since you do not see them, and may not be able to control their existence, it is undesirable to have them processed by theLinker. Files and folders like these, whose "visible" attribute is false, will always be ignored.