Cfrgtkky

I wasn't even sure how to formulate this question, nor the appropriate tags, so there may be some editing or even deletion if this is a stupid question... But I think it is a feature that people would want...

Often I find myself writing informative (I hope) documents that need href{addr}{name} to provide more content. I know I could do it once, but then the reader has to hunt for the word among many pages to "go there".

It would be nice if I could just rely on a list of them, like in a .bib file, that a new definition could just provide the same functionality.

Silly example... Instead of this;

I like the search engine href{https://duckduckgo.com}{duckduckgo} because href{https://duckduckgo.com}{duckduckgo} provides me with privacy I don't really understand.

something like this;

I like the search engine hrefcite{DDGo} because hrefcite{DDGo} provides me with privacy I don't really understand.



(where there are a list of these items, e.g. `newcommand{DDGo}[1]{href{https://duckduckgo.com}{DuckDuckGo}}`)

Maybe there is something like this already... I've used glossary before but I don't see how that helps either.

Currently, what sort of works is having the external file, /home/me/somewhere/hrefListForInput.tex under input in the preamble of my main file, main.tex, e.g. input{/home/me/somewhere/hrefListForInput}. In hrefListForInput.tex are things like

newcommand{DDGo}[0]{ href{https://duckduckgo.com}{DuckDuckGo } }%

newcommand{foam}[0]{href{https://sourceforge.net/projects/foam-extend/}{OpenFOAM }}

and in main.tex, I use these definitions like,

I like using foam in DDGo.

The 'sort of' problem manifests because if I don't put a space after the last letter in the 2nd argument of href, it runs into the next word. If I do put a space, like I've written, it is fine except at ends of sentences where there is a weird space before the last word and the period.

Earlier I had an error whereby I needed to append the file extension, .tex to hrefListForInput.tex.

I'm using LuaLatex/Linux/TeXLive, an article document class, and so could use directlua or things like that but a more universal approach would be better.

You can use biblatex. The easiest might be to define your own cite command

documentclass{article}

usepackage{biblatex}

usepackage{hyperref}



DeclareCiteCommand{hrefcite}{usebibmacro{prenote}}{%

    usebibmacro{citeindex}%

    href{thefield{url}}{printfield{label}}%

}{multicitedelim}{usebibmacro{postnote}}



begin{filecontents}{jobname.bib}

@online{foam,

  url          = {https://sourceforge.net/projects/foam-extend/},

  label        = {OpenFOAM},

}

@online{DDGo,

  url          = {https://duckduckgo.com},

  label        = {DuckDuckGo},

}

end{filecontents}



addbibresource{jobname.bib}



begin{document}

  I like using hrefcite{foam} in hrefcite{DDGo}.

end{document}

You can add your urls to a bib file and then use biblatex. If needed you can define more cite commands (I once made one which inserted also the qr-code for such an url).

documentclass{article}

usepackage{biblatex}



addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}



begin{document}

citeurl{ctan} 



end{document}

You can use glossaries to store and print your links:

documentclass{article}



begin{filecontents}{allLinks.tex}

newglossaryentry{LINK1}{

    name={href{https://www.overleaf.com/}{Linky link}},

    description = {url{https://www.overleaf.com/}}

}



newglossaryentry{LINK2}{

    name={href{https://www.sharelatex.com/}{Link linky}},

    description = {url{https://www.sharelatex.com}}

}

end{filecontents}









usepackage{hyperref}

usepackage{glossaries}

input{allLinks.tex}



makeglossaries





begin{document}

section{One}

Texidy texti text gls{LINK1} text text

section{Two}

and also gls{LINK2}



printglossaries



end{document}

This example is of a file with two links, you can change the way the list is printed using all the styles available for the glossaries package.

Using this MWE the links will be displayed as plain text. If you want them to be formatted as links take a look at https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/392724/90297