title: LinkWidget
tags: docs widget

The `link` widget generates links to tiddlers and external URIs. Optionally, hovering over a link can trigger the display of another tiddler as a popup.

! Attributes

* `to` - link target can be a URL 
* `hover` - the title of a tiddler containing the popup state to set when hovering over the link
* `qualifyHoverTitles` - if this attribute is present then the title of the hover state tiddler is qualified as described in the PopupMechanism

The `to` attribute is interpreted as an external link if it matches this regular expression:

```
/(?:file|http|https|mailto|ftp|irc|news|data):[^\s'"]+(?:\/|\b)/i
```

! Examples

The `hover` attribute is part of the PopupMechanism.

For example:

```
`$:/MyHover` is {{$:/MyHover}}

<$link to="HelloThere" hover="$:/MyHover">Hover me to see ~HelloThere!</$link>
<$reveal state="$:/MyHover" type="popup">
<div class="tw-drop-down">
{{HelloThere}}
</div>
</$reveal>
```

Renders as:

`$:/MyHover` is {{$:/MyHover}}

<$link to="HelloThere" hover="$:/MyHover">Hover me to see ~HelloThere!</$link>
<$reveal state="$:/MyHover" type="popup">
<div class="tw-drop-down">
{{HelloThere}}
</div>
</$reveal>

! CSS Classes

* `tw-tiddlylink` - applied to all links
* `tw-tiddlylink-external` - applied to external, non-tiddler links
* `tw-tiddlylink-internal` - applied to tiddler links
* `tw-tiddlylink-missing` - applied to tiddler links where the target tiddler doesn't exist
* `tw-tiddlylink-resolves` - applied to tiddler links when the target tiddler does exist

! Configuration macros

Configuration macros can be used to modify the behaviour of the link widget.

!! tw-wikilinks

Links are suppressed if the macro `tw-wikilinks` evaluates to the string `no`. For example:

```
\define tw-wikilinks() no
```

!! tw-wikilink-template

Link targets default to the URL encoded title of the tiddler. The `href` can be templated by defining the configuration macro `tw-wikilink-template`, and including within it the token `$uri_encoded$`. For example:

```
\define tw-wikilink-template() http://tiddlywiki.com/#$uri_encoded$
```