resetlinks

Resetlinks is a term used in web development to describe a mechanism for restoring hyperlink targets to their original URLs after they have been altered by scripts or by content management workflows. It is not a formal standard, but a common pattern in single-page applications, A/B testing environments, and dynamic content systems to ensure that navigation remains consistent or canonical.

Typically resetlinks relies on storing the original href values, often in a data-original-href attribute on each anchor element, or in a separate map keyed by the element. When a reset is required, a script iterates over the relevant anchors and assigns href back to the stored original value. The operation can be scoped to a portion of the page or to the entire document and may exclude special links such as mailto: or javascript: links.

Use cases include restoring canonical URLs after temporary link mutations used for analytics tagging, rerouting, or localization. It also supports content rehydration after virtual DOM updates, or when a page temporarily substitutes links for tracking or accessibility features and then needs to revert to standard navigation.

Implementation note: careful handling is needed to avoid overwriting user-modified links or breaking external destinations. Performance considerations include limiting the set of anchors to those that actually changed, and batching resets during idle periods.

See also: hyperlinks, anchor element, URL rewriting, link tracking, content management systems.