Links in the UI

Links help a user find additional information in an effort to achieve their goal. Always let a user know where an in-product link is going to take them. Use descriptive labels so users know what they'll find if they select the link.

Guidelines

When writing text for an in-product link, follow these general guidelines:

• Keep the link text brief while still providing enough context to convey where the link takes the user.
• Keep in mind screen reader users can access a list of all the links on a page without surrounding text, so make sure the link makes sense out of context.
• Don't use phrases like "click here" or "here" as link text.
• Link judiciously. Too many links are a distraction.

Use the specific guidelines for the type of link you are creating:

• Links to a page in the application
• Links to Splunk product documentation
• Links to an external site

Links to a page in the application

When including a link to a page in the application, or another location on the same page, you can include the link in a sentence. Follow these guidelines:

• In most cases, use the name of the page or section as the link text.
• Include no more than 1 link in a single sentence.
• Don't link the entire sentence, but instead the text that describes where the user goes if they select the link. If it's a very short sentence that describes the action the user takes on the linked page, it's okay to link the entire sentence.
• Use terminal punctuation with the sentence that contains the link.

The following table shows examples of what to do and what not to do when linking to a page in a sentence:

Do this	Don't do this
Start getting data in on the Connect your data page.	If data has not been ingested yet, click here to initiate the GDI setup.
View and manage your table views on the Datasets page.	Go here to view and manage your table views.
Manage team schedule.	Click here to manage team schedule.

Links to Splunk product documentation

Format links to Splunk product documentation as a standalone link. A standalone link is a link that is not part of a sentence.

When deciding where to include a link to Splunk documentation in the product UI, identify places in the product workflow where a user might get stuck and need decision support or additional information in order to complete the workflow. Consider whether help text or a tooltip can display the same content without needing to link out of the product. If a user might need more information than help text or a tooltip can provide, add a link to the relevant Splunk documentation page.

Follow these guidelines when creating links to Splunk documentation:

• For the link text, create a synopsis of the doc page title and add the word "documentation" at the end. For example: <doc page title synopsis> documentation
• When creating the synopsis, use a noun phrase or a gerund, which is the noun form of a verb ending in "ing". Don't begin with an imperative verb such as "Configure" or "Create". Imperative verbs might give the user the impression they are taking an action in the UI rather than opening a doc page.
• Don't use terminal punctuation at the end of the link.
• Always follow the text with the external link icon ().This icon means that the link opens in a new tab or window.
• Don't put a link to Splunk documentation inside of a tooltip.

The following table shows examples of what to do and what not to do when writing link text for links to Splunk documentation:

Doc page title	Do this	Don't do this
Configure single sign-on with SAML	SAML SSO documentation Configuring SSO with SAML documentation	Configure single sign-on with SAML documentation Configure single sign-on with SAML
Create scheduled alerts	Scheduled alerts documentation Creating scheduled alerts documentation	Create scheduled alerts documentation
Table visualization overview	Table visualization documentation	For more information, see Table visualization overview.

Links to an external site

For links that navigate outside of the application, such as to a third-party documentation website or Splunkbase, use a standalone link. A standalone link is a link that is not part of a sentence.

Follow these guidelines for links to external sites:

• Determine whether the link is supplemental or essential. Avoid creating deep links to outside websites if they aren't necessary. See Best practices for linking to third-party websites.
• Include the external link icon (). This icon means that the link opens in a new tab or window.
• Don't use terminal punctuation at the end of the link.
• Links to external sites require maintenance. Regularly check that links to outside websites continue to point where they are intended.

The following table shows examples of what to do and what not to do when writing links to external sites:

Do this	Don't do this
View on Splunkbase	Download the app.
View AWS docs	Review the AWS documentation.
Download Ansible	Ensure that you have Ansible 2.9+ installed.
View Splunk Blogs	See the Splunk Blogs post Biased Language Has No Place in Tech: A Follow-Up.