Formatting links in Splunk documentation

Use a hyperlink to cross-reference other topics in Splunk documentation or to connect to other Splunk materials, such as Splunk Blogs posts, Splunk Answers, or Splunk Education videos. Before you include any links in your documentation, familiarize yourself with the guidance in Best practices for including links.

Go to the corresponding section for formatting details and examples of the type of link you want to include:

• Code repositories
• Documentation or parts of a manual
• Downloads
• Splexicon entries
• Splunk Answers
• Splunk Blogs
• Splunk product UIs
• Splunk Support Portal
• Splunk videos
• Third-party websites

Code repositories

Format links to code repositories as follows. See Links to third-party websites for more information about linking to outside resources.

Type of code repository	Include this information in the sentence	Example
Splunk-owned repository	Hyperlink the name of the Splunk-owned repository and name the site on which it's located.	To capture logs from your resources and applications, see the Splunk Distribution of OpenTelemetry Collector on GitHub. See Environment Variable Config Source in GitHub to copy the configuration YAML file.
Third-party repository	Include the name of the repository and spell out the full URL.	Install the fluent-plugin-systemd plugin for systemd journal log collection. See https://github.com/fluent-plugin-systemd/fluent-plugin-systemd/blob/master/README.md on Github.

Documentation or parts of a manual

Format links to Splunk documentation or parts of a manual as follows:

Part of Splunk documentation	Include this information in the sentence	Example
A Splunk product	Link to the documentation home page for that product.	For information about Splunk Cloud Platform, see the Splunk Cloud Platform documentation.
A manual	Link to the first topic of the manual. Use the manual name as the display name for the link. Italicize the manual name.	To learn about getting data into Splunk Enterprise, see Getting Data In.
A chapter in a manual	Link to the first topic in the chapter. Use the name of the chapter as the display name for the link.	To learn about configuring timestamps, see Configure timestamps.
A topic or subheading in the same manual	When linking to a topic or subheading that's in the same manual, use the full topic name. Don't include the name of the manual.	Linking to a topic in the same manual: See Get Windows Data into Splunk Cloud Platform. Linking to a subheading in the same manual: See Create a custom role in this topic.
A topic or subheading in a different manual	When linking to a topic or subheading in a different manual that's in the same product, include the manual name in italics.	Linking to a topic in a different manual: See About data models in the Knowledge Manager Manual. Linking to a subheading in a different manual: See Configure workload categories in the Splunk Enterprise Workload Management manual.
A topic or subheading in a different product manual	When linking to a topic or subheading in a manual that's in a different product, include the product name before the manual name. If the page title or manual name refers to the product name, you don't need to include the product name twice. Italicize the manual name.	Linking to a topic in a different product manual: See Modify event processing in the Splunk Cloud Platform Getting Data In manual. See Create a new playbook in Splunk SOAR (Cloud) in the Build Playbooks with the Playbook Editor manual. Linking to a subheading in a different product manual: See Get started with Splunk Secure Gateway in the Administer Splunk Secure Gateway manual.
Splunk Developer Portal documentation	When linking to Splunk Developer Portal documentation from another documentation site, include the name of the site so that the reader knows they are going to a different site. When cross-linking within Splunk Developer Portal documentation, don't include the site name unless it's part of the page title.	Linking from Splunk platform docs on docs.splunk.com: See Develop apps and add-ons for Splunk Enterprise on the Splunk Developer Portal. Linking from one Splunk Developer Portal page to another: Find a summary of the latest updates and changes at What's new on the Splunk Developer Portal for Splunk Cloud Platform and Splunk Enterprise.
Splunk Observability documentation	When linking to Splunk Observability documentation from another documentation site, include the name of the site so that the reader knows they are going to a different site. When cross-linking within Splunk Observability documentation, don't include the site name unless it's part of the page title. It's okay to clarify whether you're linking to user or developer documentation when you cross-link between the two Observability sites.	Linking from Splunk platform docs on docs.splunk.com: See Configure detectors and alerts in Splunk APM in the Splunk Observability documentation. Linking from one Splunk Observability user documentation page to another: To learn how to migrate to the Splunk OpenTelemetry Lambda Layer, see Migrate from SignalFx Lambda wrappers to Splunk OpenTelemetry Lambda Layer. Linking from Splunk Observability developer docs: To learn more about access tokens, see Create and manage organization access tokens using Splunk Observability Cloud in the user documentation.
Splunk Cloud Platform and Splunk Enterprise manuals from app documentation	When the target of a link is different for Splunk Cloud Platform and Splunk Enterprise, display the links for both products in a bulleted list.	For Splunk Cloud Platform, see Using the alert actions manager in the Splunk Cloud Platform Alerting Manual. For Splunk Enterprise, see Using the alert actions manager in the Splunk Enterprise Alerting Manual.
A configuration file topic	If the name of the topic you're linking to is also a configuration file, don't use monospace in the display name of the link.	See limits.conf in the Admin Manual.

Downloads

Format links to these types of downloads as follows:

Type of download	Include this information in the sentence	Example
Splunkbase download	Use the name of the download as the display text for the link.	Download the Splunk Add-on for Microsoft Cloud Services from Splunkbase.
Download from the Splunk website	Use the name of the Splunk website download as the display text for the link.	Download the Splunk Universal Forwarder for your operating system from the Splunk website. Download Splunk Enterprise from Free Trials and Downloads on the Splunk website.
Download files	Use the file name or document name as the display name of the link.	Download the tutorialdata.zip file. Download the Machine Learning Toolkit Quick Reference Guide.

Splexicon entries

Link only to Splunk-specific terms that your audience might be unfamiliar with, and include the link at the first instance of the term you want to define. Bold the Splexicon term. See the following examples:

• You must configure the receiving port on the peer.
• The universal forwarder collects data from a data source or another forwarder and sends it to a different forwarder or a deployment.

Splunk Answers

Use the name of the page as the display text for the link. Mention that the link directs to Splunk Answers. See the following example:

See Questions related to All Apps and Add-ons on Splunk Answers.

Splunk Blogs

Use the name of the blog post as the display text for the link. Mention that the link directs to Splunk Blogs. See the following example:

See the Splunk Blogs post Data Sherlock: The Change of Perspective.

Splunk product UIs

You can link directly from Splunk documentation to some Splunk product UIs. Include links to Splunk product UIs only in task steps.

When linking to a Splunk product UI, include the direct link to the page first, followed by the steps a user can take to navigate to the page on their own. Don't replace the navigational steps to a product page with a link to the product page. Give the reader the option to either select the link or navigate on their own.

When creating a link to a page in the UI, specify the name of the page, whether the link is to a guided setup or page, and the name of the product using the following format:

Open the <page name in UI> <guided setup or page> in <product name>.

Use the page name as the display text for the link.

See the following example:

Open the Amazon Web Services guided setup in Splunk Observability Cloud.

Here is the example in the context of a task step:

1. Log in to Splunk Observability Cloud.
2. Open the Amazon Web Services guided setup in Splunk Observability Cloud.
   Optionally, you can navigate to the Amazon Web Services guided setup on your own:
   1. On the left navigation menu, select Data Management.
   2. Select Add Integration to open the Integrate Your Data page.
   3. On the Integrate Your Data page, select the tile for Amazon Web Services.

Splunk Support Portal

Link to the Splunk Support Portal pages, which are owned by Splunk Customer Success. See the following examples:

To file a ticket on the Splunk Support Portal, see the Splunk Support Portal.

If you have a support contract, file a case using the Splunk Support Portal. See the Splunk Support Portal.

Splunk videos

Use the name of the video as the display text for the link. Provide a brief description of the video. See the following example:

Watch this Splunk Education video, Creating a Custom Search Command with the Python SDK, to see a high-level view of how custom search commands work, and build an example using the Splunk Python SDK.

Third-party websites

Splunk documentation sometimes has links to pages outside of the documentation or a Splunk website. See Best practices for linking to third-party websites for more information about essential or supplemental links.

Type of third-party link	Include this information in the sentence	Example
Essential third-party link	Spell out the full URL without any capital letters. Include "http://www" or "https://www" and remove the trailing slash at the end of the URL.	Install the fluent-plugin-systemd plugin for systemd journal log collection. See https://github.com/fluent-plugin-systemd/fluent-plugin-systemd/blob/master/README.md on GitHub. Create a Splunk On-Call webhook by following the steps in https://help.victorops.com/knowledge-base/rest-endpoint-integration-guide.
Supplemental third-party link	Avoid creating deep links to pages outside of Splunk sites. Consider ways you can direct users to information if you think they need assistance finding it, such as giving the reader a search term and a website name. Enclose the search term in quotation marks.	Search for "Query tables" on the Microsoft website. For details, see "Connecting to WMI Remotely Starting with Vista" on the Microsoft website.