Editing Help:Interlanguage links (section)

=== Local links to override Wikidata interlanguage links ===
{{sh|WP:LOCALLINK}}
{{Ombox
| type  = content
| text  = '''Deprecated''': Local interlanguage links should not be used in the article namespace and should only be used in [[#exceptions|exceptional cases]]. 
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Before 2013, the only method of generating a link to the article in another language was to use a "local" interlanguage link in the text of the page itself. As of 2013, the use of such "local links" for interlanguage linking was ''deprecated'' except in the situations listed below, with interlanguage link data being centralized on [[Wikipedia:Wikidata|Wikidata]]. The problem with having links on each page was that each language had to maintain its own separate lists. So for example, if the name of a page on the English Wikipedia changed, then each Wikipedia article in a different language that linked to that English Wikipedia page would have to separately notice this fact and change their own links.

For most pages, these links are no longer needed and can be safely removed, but you should verify that the local list and the Wikidata lists match before doing so. There is an [[d:Wikidata:Tools/User scripts#Userscripts for Wikipedia|automated tool]] to help with that.

{{anchor|exceptions}}The local links do however still serve some purposes:

# They override the information that comes from Wikidata.
# They were required if more than one article (or redirect) in one language should point to a target article in another language. This can now be resolved by creating a redirect to a section of the article and adding the redirect to Wikidata (see [[Wikipedia:Wikidata#Interlanguage_links_for_redirects|interlanguage links for redirects]]).
# They are required for pages that are not allowed on Wikidata, such as your userpage.

==== Syntax ====
:{{A note}} The syntax for the side bar and running text are slightly different. See next section for the syntax within the running text.
Although they are useful only in rare cases, you can force the generation of one of these local interlanguage [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking|link]] overrides in the article using the following form:

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">[[language code:Title]]</syntaxhighlight>

where the language code is the two-letter code as per [[ISO 639-1]]. (see [[m:list of Wikipedias|complete list of language Wikipedias available]]. English is "en", German is "de", etc.) So for example in the English language article on [[plankton]], which is available on many other wikis, the "local" interlanguage links (if you were to want to generate them) might look like this:

<syntaxhighlight lang="wikitext">
[[ar:عوالق]]
[[el:Πλαγκτόν]]
[[fa:پلانکتون]]
[[he:פלנקטון]]
[[ja:プランクトン]]
[[ko:플랑크톤]]
[[ru:Планктон]]
[[ta:மிதவைவாழி]]
[[te:ప్లవకాలు]]
[[th:แพลงก์ตอน]]
[[zh:浮游生物]]
</syntaxhighlight>

:{{A note}} '''Typically these links do not need to be generated manually like this, and will not show up in the page’s source text .''' These links are usually generated by the wiki software language selector extension in a special sidebar section or drop-down menu, "{{int:otherlanguages}}", listed by language name.

To force the "local" generation in the Languages list of the article of all the languages of a different Wikidata item, use [[:Template:Interwiki extra]]. For example, the [[Murder of Kitty Genovese]] automatically links languages listed at {{Q|Q18341392}}; to add the language links at {{Q|Q238128}},  use <code><nowiki>{{Interwiki extra|Q238128}}</nowiki></code>.  Links to non-English Wikipedia articles to both topics will then appear in the Languages list.