On Adding IDs to Headings

Adding IDs to Headings for Smooth Linking

This article addresses the challenge of creating easily accessible links to specific sections of a webpage, particularly targeting headings. The core concept is simple: headings with unique IDs allow direct linking via browser behavior (e.g., https://my-website.com/https://www.php.cn/link/86317a3269e7927536b010c2615aeab5).

For example, the heading:

<h3 id="Step">Step 2</h3>

can be linked to using:

<a href="https://www.php.cn/link/86317a3269e7927536b010c2615aeab5">Jump to Step 2</a>

While manually adding IDs to all headings is tedious, the author initially used jQuery to automate this process on their website. This script not only added IDs (if missing) but also inserted a link within each heading for convenient copy-linking.

However, this approach proved unreliable due to a race condition: the browser attempted to locate the ID before the jQuery script added it. This highlights the importance of having IDs present in the HTML before the page rendering begins.

The author's solution, leveraging their WordPress site, involved a plugin ("Add Anchor Links" by Karolína Vyskočilová) that elegantly adds IDs to anchor links, avoiding conflicts with existing IDs.

For non-WordPress sites, server-side HTML processing (during the build process or via a server-side filter) is recommended to ensure IDs are included in the initial HTML. Alternatively, a service worker, possibly utilizing a tool like Cloudflare's HTMLRewriter, offers a client-side solution to achieve the same result. The key is to ensure the IDs are available before the browser initiates its linking behavior.

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