Searching for Dead Links

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Olivier Beltrami
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Searching for Dead Links

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi,

I am in the process of cleaning-up and freshening-up my help project which was started in 1997 with Robohelp and migrated to H&M in 2001. The project has over 3000 topics with many conditionally active or not as the corresponding software migrated through 4 major versions. To make a long story short, I have lots of dead links (I'm probably the guy for whom the message "Several more referenced topics are missing! Reporting of missing topics stopped due to the extraordinary large number." was developed). :naughty:

Be that as it may, I have now buckled-down and started hunting for those dead links.

The format in the Compiler Messages window is perfect for me, but unfortunately it stops after only 20-30 dead links.

I tried to use the reports, but only the long report includes dead links and it just includes too much stuff. In addition, clicking on the links does not select the right topic in H&M, which the Compiler Messages window does just fine for me.

Any suggestions ?

Very best regards,

Olivier
Olivier Beltrami
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Tim Green
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Re: Searching for Dead Links

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

Actually, my suggestion would have been to use the Report tool. The links should definitely take you to the right topics and you should be able to work through it by processing the first few and then re-generating the report to bring the next ones to the top. Could you expand a little on what is happening when you click on the links in the report and you are taken to the wrong topic? That definitely shouldn't be happening.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Olivier Beltrami
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Re: Searching for Dead Links

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi Tim,

Thank you very much for your message.

When I generate the long report I get a humongous HTML file which has 2 problems for me (see screenshot below):

1) it contains everything, not only the dead links, so I may have to scroll through tens of pages of the report to find a dead link (saving to PDF generates a 325 page document).

2) when I click on a link of that HTML report, it takes me to that topic in the HTML report, but does not change my position in H&M to the topic in question.

Maybe i'm using the wrong settings or wrong report ? There are options to only list some of the builds or status topics, but nothing that I could see for dead links.

Very best regards,

Olivier

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Olivier Beltrami
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Tim Green
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Re: Searching for Dead Links

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

Thanks for the information. I'm passing this on to the developers and we'll see what they say.
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Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Re: Searching for Dead Links

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Olivier,

A suggestion for the meantime: Try filtering the report with a date range to reduce the size. If you make the range relatively narrow you should be able to get just a few topics at a time.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Martin Wynne
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Re: Searching for Dead Links

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

Olivier Beltrami wrote:2) when I click on a link of that HTML report, it takes me to that topic in the HTML report, but does not change my position in H&M to the topic in question.
Hi Olivier,

It's working for me. But only for the Topic ID link on the right side of the report. The links in the Refers To list don't work.

It is using Ajax in your browser to do the switching in H&M, so you might need to try a different one, or turn scripting on in it. I'm using Firefox.

cheers,

Martin.
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Olivier Beltrami
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Re: Searching for Dead Links

Unread post by Olivier Beltrami »

Hi Martin,
for the Topic ID link on the right side of the report
I had not seen that column.
Thank you very much,

Olivier
Olivier Beltrami
https://www.qppstudio.net
Worldwide Public Holidays and Calendar Data
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