Link Header Plug-ins

Content Studio can also be extended by the use of link header plug-ins. You implement a link header plug-in by modifying the Content Engine to attach a link header to some or all of the content items it returns. A link header is an HTTP header field that can be used to link to additional information about the returned resource. In this case, the link must point to an HTML document, which Content Studio will then display in an HTML pane inside the Content Studio window.

The Content Engine API for attaching link headers to content items lets you specify a template for constructing the link header URL from strings such as the type and id of the requested content item. In this way you can get Content Studio to display content related to the requested content item in the HTML pane. You could, for example, in the very simplest case, define a template that caused Content Studio to display a view of the published content item. Alternatively you could construct a URL that accesses some public or private web service (readability analysis, for example) and display the results.

You can direct link header content to two different types of pane:

The content item's attributes panel

This is the preferred destination for link header content, since information displayed here is obviously associated with the current content item. A new attributes panel section is created for each link header plug-in you define.

A research panel

You can also direct link header content to a research panel should you wish. From a usability perspective, it is less obvious that content displayed in a research panel is associated with a specific content item.

You can create link header plug-ins in two different ways:

  • Use the default link header plug-in included with the Content Engine.

  • Create your own link header plug-ins from scratch

These options are described in the following sections.