TPVortex    (01)

TPVortex is a backlink database. It simply stores link sources and destinations, along with some metadata, and allows users to query those links. TPVortex is meant to be used by any application requiring backlinks. Initially, I am targeting two applications: the MHonArc mailing list archiver with my mhpurple.pl module, and PurpleWiki.    (02)

The name is an homage to Douglas Adams, and his description of a Total Perspective Vortex.    (03)

To demonstrate some of the functionality enabled by a tool like TPVortex, I generated an example using backlink data collected from the ba-unrev-talk mailing list. The raw data from which this example was derived is available as a text file.    (04)

Use Cases    (05)

• Retrieve all links pointing to a site    (06)
• Retrieve all links pointing to a document    (07)
• Retrieve all links pointing to a part of a document    (08)

• Retrieve all links of a certain type    (09)
• Retrieve all links posted before/after/on a date    (010)

• Add link    (011)
• Update links from a page    (012)
• Delete link    (013)

References    (014)

• Why Backlinks?    (016)
• Notes on link integrity and evolution    (015)