My Blog Has No "Links" Section in the admin?

  • viper007bond · Member ·

    Hi everyone,

    The Links menu should now be back for recently created sites. Older sites were never affected.

    While the core WordPress software that we run is moving towards removing the links functionality in favor of other solutions (namely a plugin), we’re not quite ready for that change yet so for the time being the links functionality is back. What we’re going to do in the future has yet to be decided.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    @ncnegin-Because it’s the Links/Blogroll Menu in the Dashboard that generates the content for the widget.

    opinion/
    We’re not standalone WordPress here. And while I appreciate that most features of standalone WordPress do get incorporated here, it doesn’t necessarily follow that if something is taken away from standalone WordPress, it has to disappear here, especially since we don’t have the option of using plugins to make up for it. Just my 2¢.
    /opinion

    Would be happy to hear that something even better is in the works. As ncnegin said above, we use it… a lot.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    Thanks Alex. (Should have refreshed first!)

  • ncnegin · Member ·

    @macmanx the custom menu/custom widget option works real well. Thanks for that solution.

  • ncnegin · Member ·

    @viper007bond Thank you for that great news!

  • phoxis · Member ·

    Where will the existing links go?

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    Please see above, the Links section is back and we have not decided what we will be doing in the future regarding this.

  • phoxis · Member ·

    Yes, it was there when when i posted in this thread. I wanted to know in case you decide to remove the link feature, where the existing links will go? I mean the data, ie. the links we have saved. Although i know wp will take care of the stuffs well, but my point was, if you select to remove the links feature, then please consider some mechanism such that the existing links are backedup and we don’t loose them.

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    We don’t know for sure yet, we haven’t made any plans. We will most probably consider some way to preserve them if we do remove the feature.

  • ryan · Member ·

    http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/21307

    Sorry. This was prematurely launched on wordpress.com and has since been reverted. Links will eventually be retired for new blogs (blogs created after the switch is eventually flipped). Blogs created before the switch is flipped will retain the Links UI and all data.

    The way forward will be Custom Menus (Appearance > Menus) along with the Custom Menu widget. This allows manual sorting, a better UI, and other improvements. Those who are aware of creating blogrolls in Custom Menus rarely look at the crusty old Link Manager again. Documentation and some improvements to the Custom Menus UI will accompany the eventual switch.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    @ryan-Thanks for the further clarification.

    So then all themes will support having multiple Custom Menus (obviously referring to those that currently support only one), as well as multiple copies of the Custom Menu widget?

    On my personal site (justjennifer.wordpress.com) I have 4 different link widgets in the sidebar, each one displaying links from a different link category. On a couple of the widgets, I have set them up to display a random 10 links because I have quite a number of links in that particular category.

    In short, will I be able to do this using the Custom Menu? I’m particularly concerned about losing the ability to display a random 10 links.

  • staff-blorbo · Staff ·

    Though some themes support only one (or sometimes zero) Custom Menus, this only referrers to the navigation menu area.

    You can still create as many Custom Menus as you’d like for use with Custom Menu Widgets.

    Unfortunately, the ability to display a small set of random links out of a larger group of links is not currently available in the Custom Menu system.

  • justjennifer · Member ·

    Thanks for the info @macmanx-In the long run, though, that’s a shame. I have dozens of links that I share via my links section and the ability to display a random selection of those links keeps my sidebar sane and tidy.

  • garymgordon · Member ·

    I just want to share my opinion and comment. Personally, I feel that many people use the LINKS functionality and while there may be better ways to do this, I would prefer to see the LINKS area “improved” as opposed to dropped and require the use of some other feature. I’m not sure if this is possible, but if WordPress could simply improve the functionality of the LINKS feature, as opposed to eventually removing it and forcing users to replicate “links” by doing it another way, I’d vote for just an improvement of the LINKS area.

    :-) But I’m really happy that you’ve decided not to remove it at this time.

    Thanks,
    Gary

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