Editing XLink (section)

==Linking with XLink==
XLink defines a set of [[Attribute (computing)#XML|attributes]] that may be added to elements of other [[XML namespaces]]. XLink provides two kinds of hyperlinking for use in XML documents. '''Simple links''' connect only two resources, similar to [[HTML]] links. '''Extended links''' can link an arbitrary number of resources.

===Simple links===
A '''simple link''' creates a unidirectional [[hyperlink]] from one element to another via a [[Uniform Resource Identifier|URI]]. Example:
<syntaxhighlight lang=xml><?xml version="1.0"?>
<document xmlns="http://example.org/xmlns/2002/document" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
  <heading id="someHeading">Some Document</heading>
  <para>Here is <anchor xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="#someHeading">a link</anchor> to the header.</para>
  <para>It is an anchor that points to the element with the id "someHeading" on the current page.</para>
</document></syntaxhighlight>

===Extended links===
'''Extended links''' allow multiple resources, either remote or local, to be connected by multiple arcs. An '''arc''' is information about the origin, destination and behavior of a link between two resources. The origin and destination resources are defined by labels. By using one or more arcs, an extended link can achieve specific sets of connections between multiple resources.

For example, if all resources in an extended link were given the label <var>A</var>, then an arc within that link declaring <code>from="<var>A</var>", to="<var>A</var>"</code> would form connections between all resources.

Extended links do not need to be contained in the same document as the elements they link to. This makes it possible to associate metadata or other supplementary information with resources without editing those resources.

XLink also supports richer information about link types and the roles of each resource in an arc.