Service: Link Checker for write-ups

[jeffa]

Node Link Checker version 0.0 is now up and running at perlmonk.org.

Right now, it only accepts one node_id and attempts to check it for links. A more useful feature would be to actually keep track of the nodes authored by you that contain links in them and provide a drop-down list instead.

In the meantime, you'll have to maintain a list of your nodes that you feel have the potential to contain broken links. A good place to start is User nodes info xml generator. This is just version 0.0 - feel free to give suggestions by replying, emailing, or /msg'ing.

In the meantime, here is a link that checks this node. I have including three links below - one inner, one outside good link, and one outside bad link (total of 6 links in this writeup - 5 if i can't edit this node) . Bad inner links are intercepted by the site's engine which attempts to search for the node name, so they can't be validated.

(link will go here if i can edit this node - else look below for a reply)

Sample links:

• jcwren
• http://www.userfriendly.org
• http::/www.userfriendly.org

Please use this utility sparsely and responsibly. :)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
F--F--F--F--F--F--F--F--
(the triplet paradiddle)

[jeffa]

Oops. Can't edit root node :D

Here are some links: <content>

• good - jcwren
• good - http://www.userfriendly.org
• bad - http://www.yaewdeubskt.org
• bad - http://www.mtsu.edu/free_degrees
• feature - http://perlmonk.org
• good - http://jeffa.perlmonk.org
</content>

You can verify this node right now by following this link: (it's a bit slow, so be patient) http://jeffa.perlmonk.org/cgi-bin/check_link.cgi?node=126735

Caveat:
I had to add an aweful hack to prevent bad links from resolving themselves as a virtual host on perlmonk.org. If you have a link in a write up that points to the front page at perlmonk.org - it will come up red.

UPDATE - after a few requests (and after i cleanup up my code!), i have decided to reveal the code:

http://jeffa.perlmonk.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi?file=check_link.cgi

My new motto - "fully tested code is platform dependent"

jeffa

[neophyte]

Please use this utility sparsely and responsibly.

I'd like to check Outside Links once in a while - but I guess that would be quite heavy on your program.
What load will it accept?

neophyte Niederrhein.pm

[jeffa]

Yes, as a matter of fact, when i first discussed this tool with jcwren, his first reply to me pondered about using this for you. :)

Do me a favor, however, to make the task easier. To be quite honest, this was some of the hardest HTML munging i've done yet. If you could add a <content> tag just before the first outside link and a corresponding closing tag just after the last link, then my task should be much easier. Just /msg me after you've added those tags and i'll get to work. ;)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
F--F--F--F--F--F--F--F--
(the triplet paradiddle)

[FoxtrotUniform]

I'd really like to see something like this added to node previews; not that checking links by hand is so horribly tedious, but we're supposed to be automating the tedious tasks, right? :-)

--
:wq

[orbital]

I like jeffa idead of having a pulldown, this could be expanded a bit....

this could easily be integrated as yet another noddlet. The noddlet could have a list of your nodes that you have created and also a list on ones that you have booked marked. This way whenever your doing a right up all your favorite nodes are right there to link to. Heck if we are putting this in a noddlet tie the for to a javascript that fills the value into your writeup when you make a selection. This would certianly speed up right up, or at least encourage people to use this more.