external-links-management

name	external-links-management
description	Add or modify external links (Sefaria, Al HaTorah, Wikisource, Daf Yomi, etc.) shown in text reader pages (Talmud, Mishnah, Yerushalmi, Bible). Use when the user asks to add, change, or remove external links from any reader, or add a new external site to link to.

External Links Management

External links connect each reader page to the corresponding content on third-party sites (Sefaria, Al HaTorah, Hebrew Wikisource, Daf Yomi). Each reader has its own external-links helper file and renders links at two levels: section-level (inline next to each text segment) and page-level (footer at the bottom of the page).

Architecture

Helper files (link generation logic)

Reader	Helper file	Hebrew names source
Talmud Bavli	client/src/lib/external-links.ts	TRACTATE_HEBREW_NAMES in shared/tractates.ts
Bible	client/src/lib/bible-external-links.ts	hebrew field in shared/bible-books.ts
Mishnah	client/src/lib/mishnah-external-links.ts	TRACTATE_HEBREW_NAMES + MISHNAH_ONLY_HEBREW_NAMES in shared/tractates.ts
Yerushalmi	client/src/lib/yerushalmi-external-links.ts	YERUSHALMI_HEBREW_NAMES in shared/yerushalmi-data.ts

Page components (rendering)

Reader	Page component	Section links	Footer links
Talmud Bavli	client/src/components/text/sectioned-bilingual-display.tsx	Sefaria, Al HaTorah	via ExternalLinksFooter component
Bible	client/src/pages/bible-chapter.tsx	Sefaria, Al HaTorah	via BibleExternalLinksFooter component
Mishnah	client/src/pages/mishnah-chapter.tsx	Sefaria, Al HaTorah, Wikisource	Inline footer (Sefaria, Al HaTorah, Wikisource)
Yerushalmi	client/src/pages/yerushalmi-chapter.tsx	Sefaria only	Inline footer (Sefaria, Wikisource)

Footer components (dedicated)

• client/src/components/external-links-footer.tsx — Talmud Bavli footer
• client/src/components/bible/bible-external-links-footer.tsx — Bible footer
• Mishnah and Yerushalmi use inline footers directly in their page components

URL Patterns by Site

Sefaria

• Talmud: https://www.sefaria.org.il/{Tractate}.{folio}{side}[.{section}]
• Mishnah: https://www.sefaria.org/{sefariaRef}.{mishnah}
• Yerushalmi: https://www.sefaria.org.il/{sectionRef}
• Bible: https://www.sefaria.org.il/{Book}.{chapter}[.{verse}]

Al HaTorah

• Talmud: https://shas.alhatorah.org/Full/{Tractate}/{folio}{side}[.{section}]
• Mishnah: https://mishna.alhatorah.org/Full/{Tractate}/{chapter}[.{mishnah}]
• Bible: https://mg.alhatorah.org/Full/{Book}/{chapter}[.{verse}]
• Note: uses different subdomain per corpus (shas/mishna/mg)

Hebrew Wikisource

• Talmud: https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/{HebrewTractate}_{HebrewFolio}_{HebrewSide}
• Mishnah: https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/משנה_{HebrewTractate}_{HebrewChapter}_{HebrewMishnah}
• Yerushalmi: https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/ירושלמי_{HebrewTractate}_{HebrewChapter}
• Bible: https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/{HebrewBook}_{HebrewChapter}
• Uses numberToHebrewGematria() from external-links.ts for numeric conversion

Daf Yomi (Tzurat HaDaf)

• Talmud only: https://daf-yomi.com/Dafyomi_Page.aspx?massechet={id}&amud={amudId}&fs=1
• Uses DAF_YOMI_MASSECHET_IDS mapping in external-links.ts

Tractate Name Overrides

Some external sites use different transliterations. Override mappings:

• Talmud Al HaTorah (EXTERNAL_TRACTATE_NAMES in external-links.ts): Eruvin→Eiruvin, Rosh Hashanah→Rosh_HaShanah, Chullin→Chulin
• Mishnah Al HaTorah (MISHNAH_ALHATORAH_NAMES in mishnah-external-links.ts): Eruvin→Eiruvin, Rosh Hashanah→Rosh_HaShanah, Chullin→Chulin, Eduyot→Eiduyot, Kelim→Keilim, Taharot→Tahorot, plus multi-word names need underscores (Maaser Sheni→Maaser_Sheni, etc.)
• Bible Al HaTorah (ALHATORAH_BOOK_NAMES in bible-external-links.ts): Full mapping of English→transliterated Hebrew names

How to Add a New External Site

1. Add the URL generation function to the appropriate helper file (e.g. getMishnahNewSiteLink(tractate, chapter, mishnah))
2. If the site uses different tractate names, add a name override mapping
3. Add the link to the section-level links function (if per-segment) or page-level links function (if per-chapter/page)
4. Update the page component if needed (section links render inline; footer links render at page bottom)
5. Verify URLs by fetching a sample of them (use fetch(url, { method: 'HEAD' }) to check HTTP 200)
6. Update the changelog page at client/src/pages/changelog.tsx

How to Add External Links to a New Reader

1. Create a new helper file: client/src/lib/{reader}-external-links.ts
2. Define an interface for the link type (follow the pattern from existing files)
3. Create URL generation functions for each external site
4. Create aggregate functions: get{Reader}SectionLinks() and/or get{Reader}ChapterLinks()
5. Import and use in the page component — render section links inline and footer links at page bottom
6. Add Hebrew name mappings to the shared data file if not already present

Case Study: Auditing Al HaTorah Rambam URL Slugs

Al HaTorah's Rambam site (rambam.alhatorah.org) is a client-side rendered SPA. This means:

• All pages return HTTP 200 regardless of whether the hilchot name is valid or not.
• The "This page does not exist" error only appears after JavaScript runs in a browser.
• You cannot detect broken links by checking HTTP status codes or raw HTML content.

How to get the canonical hilchot name list

Al HaTorah embeds its full book/hilchot name list in a small site-specific JS file. Fetch it and extract the Rambam array:

const jsText = await (await fetch("https://rambam.alhatorah.org/site.dw.8.min.js")).text();
// Find the Rambam array in window.MG.bookNames.Rambam
const match = jsText.match(/Rambam:"([^"]+)"/);
const canonicalNames = match[1].split(",");
// canonicalNames is the authoritative list of display names in order
// Convert to URL slugs: spaces → underscores (apostrophes are kept as-is; the browser URL-encodes them)
const toSlug = (name) => name.replace(/ /g, '_');

The resulting list includes intro entries (e.g. "HaMadda Introduction", "Ahavah Introduction") which have no corresponding hilchot in our data — skip those when mapping. The remaining entries match the hilchot in shared/rambam-data.ts in order.

Comparing against stored values

After extracting canonicalNames (filtered to actual hilchot, not intros), compare slug-by-slug against the alHatorah fields in RAMBAM_BOOKS:

// canonicalHilchot = canonical names with intro lines removed, in order
// ourValues = alHatorah field values from RAMBAM_BOOKS in order
for (let i = 0; i < canonicalHilchot.length; i++) {
  const canonical = toSlug(canonicalHilchot[i]);
  const ours = ourValues[i];
  if (canonical !== ours) console.log(`MISMATCH: expected ${canonical}, got ${ours}`);
}

URL format for Rambam

https://rambam.alhatorah.org/Full/{slug}/{chapter}.{halacha}

Where {slug} is the canonical display name with spaces replaced by underscores. Apostrophes (e.g. Tume'at_Meit) appear literally in the slug and are URL-encoded by the browser automatically.

Common mismatch patterns found (April 2026 audit)

40 of 83 hilchot slugs were wrong. Recurring error types:

• Missing underscore in compound: veSeferTorah → veSefer_Torah
• Spelling: Kriat → Keriat, Gerushin → Geirushin, Naara → Naarah, Maachalot → Maakhalot, Tumat → Tume'at, Gezelah → Gezeilah, etc.
• Different root word: Kli → Kelei, Issurei_HaMizbeach → Isurei_Mizbeach, Avodah → Avodat
• Shortened canonical form: Sanhedrin_veHaOnshin_haMesurin_lahem → Sanhedrin, Melakhim_uMilchamot → Melakhim
• Double vs single letter: Mammon → Mamon, Bikkurim → Bikurim, Shemitah → Shemittah, Mattanah → Matanah
• Missing apostrophes: Tumat_Okhalin → Tume'at_Okhelin, Sheelah_uFikkadon → She'eilah_uPikkadon

Shared Utility

numberToHebrewGematria(num) in client/src/lib/external-links.ts converts integers to Hebrew gematria strings (e.g. 5→ה, 9→ט, 15→טו). Used by Wikisource links across all readers.