Many hyperlinks are nothing more than menus. In this case, they are not treated as an EI, EO or EQ.
According to the rules for an external inquiry a request must come from outside the application boundary and information must be displayed from inside to outside the application boundary. A hyperlink is just that – a hyperlink. A hyperlink is navigation to another part of the application or another Internet/Intranet site. No information crosses the boundary.
An external inquiry must reference at least one internal logical file and/or one external interface file. Both an internal logical file and an external interface file must be a logical group of related information. Imagine hyperlinking to another Website -- all the information displayed is not a logical group of information.
On the other hand, a hyperlink that sends a parameter that is used to search could be an example of an external inquiry. That is, the hyperlink follows the rules required for an external inquiry. There is an input side (the parameter) and there is an output side the results of the search. In this case the output side is dynamic and changes. This is in sharp contrast to a static hyperlink that navigates to another part of the Website.