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Welcome to the 'Technical Questions' section of the h2g2 FAQ. This is where you can find out how the technical aspects of the site work, from GuideML to cookies.
If you want to see a complete list of questions answered by the h2g2 FAQ, you can go to the h2g2 FAQ Index at any time.
Contents of this Section
What are cookies and why do I need them?
Cookies are little bits of information stored by your browser so that it can remember things between visits to websites. They aren't evil, can't divulge personal information about you and are totally harmless.
h2g2 uses cookies so that when you come back to visit us, we know who you are and can offer you a link to your Personal Space without you having to tell us who you are every time. This means that you will need to have cookies enabled in your browser to prevent you from having to log in every time you click a link. It makes life much more pleasant if you always use the same computer, but there are a number of people who use someone else's computer, or visit us from Internet cafés, and they don't want the browser they use to remember who they are, in case someone else logs on to h2g2 as them.
Those users should instead log on to h2g2 using their password, and should ensure that they leave the 'Always remember me on this computer' box unticked when logging on. In this way no permanent cookie is stored on the computer and nobody will be able to access your h2g2 pages.
If, however, you are the only user of your computer, then you should make sure you tick the 'Always remember me on this computer' box when logging on, as this will save you the effort of entering your details every time you visit h2g2.
You can find out more about password access to h2g2 here.
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How can I write GuideML?
If you know anything about HTML, you'll find it's really easy to pick up GuideML. There's a whole section of this FAQ devoted to GuideML where you can find answers to your GuideML questions.
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How can I see an entry's GuideML?
One of the best ways to learn how to use GuideML is to see how other Researchers have done it. If you would like to see what GuideML looks like in entries, simply type in the URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/Test123456 where 123456 is the A number of the entry you wish to view the GuideML for. The A number can be found in the 'entry data' box in the top right hand corner of each entry.
So, for this entry, A308279, you'd look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/Test308279 (remembering to leave out the letter 'A').
If you want to look at the GuideML for someone's Personal Space, then type in the URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/TestUserPage123456 where 123456 is the U number of the Researcher you wish to view the GuideML for.
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How do h2g2 URLs work?
h2g2 URLs begin with http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/. Please note that previous incarnations of the site used URLs that began with http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/ and http://www.h2g2.com/ and although these URLs mostly redirect to the DNA format above, they shouldn't be used.
The /h2g2/ part of the URL can be followed by an optional skin name, which will force the display into that h2g2 skin (you can find out about skins here). Therefore the following are all valid h2g2 URLs:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A123456 - This will take you to entry A123456 on h2g2, displaying it in the default skin for h2g2 (if you are not logged in) or in your personal skin preference (if you are logged in). However, if entry A123456 is not an h2g2 entry but a 360 entry, it will take you to entry A123456 on 360.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A123456 - This will take you to entry A123456 on h2g2, displaying it in the Alabaster skin. However, if entry A123456 is not an h2g2 entry but a 360 entry, it will take you to entry A123456 on 360, displaying it in the default 360 skin.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A123456 - This will take you to entry A123456 on h2g2, displaying it in the Classic Goo skin. However, if entry A123456 is not an h2g2 entry but a 360 entry, it will take you to entry A123456 on 360, displaying it in the default 360 skin
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A123456 - This will take you to entry A123456 on h2g2, displaying it in the Brunel skin. However, if entry A123456 is not an h2g2 entry but a 360 entry, it will take you to entry A123456 on 360, displaying it in the default 360 skin
Given the above URL structure, you can use any of the following at the end of the URL:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U123456 - This will take you to the Personal Space for Researcher number 123456.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A123456 - This will take you to Guide Entry number 123456.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/C123456 - This will take you to Category number 123456.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F123456 - This will take you to Conversation Forum number 123456.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/F123456?thread=98765 - This will take you to Conversation number 98765 in Conversation Forum number 123456.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/NamedEntry - A further type of link is the Named Entry link, where NamedEntry is a name like PeerReview or Search. You can find a list of available Named Entries here.
[Note: We used to support P123456 links too, but these are functionally identical to A123456 links, so don't worry if your existing entries contain such links. Only the above should now be used, however.]
Please note that linking directly to URLs from within Guide Entries should really be done with GuideML, to take advantage of the automatically-generated information lists. For more information see the GuideML Clinic.
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How can I link to parts of h2g2?
If you're writing a Guide Entry in GuideML, then you can link to parts of h2g2 using GuideML's <LINK> tag.
If you're posting to a Conversation Forum, typing into your Journal or writing a Guide Entry in Plain Text mode, then you should read the section on parsing in Conversations, which explains some really easy ways to link to various parts of h2g2.
Note that you can't use GuideML in Conversations or your Journal: if you do it'll all go horribly wrong.
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How can I make my own h2g2 search form for another website?
That's easy. Just use the following HTML, and you'll end up with a cool search link to h2g2 from your very own website.
<FORM method="get" action="http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/Search">
<INPUT name="search" type="text" size="20">
<INPUT type="Submit" value="Search h2g2">
</FORM>
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How can I put links to h2g2 on my own website?
We used to have some link graphics you could use, but these have been discontinued, so if you want to link to h2g2, just link to us with a normal hyperlink.
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