Link checker
Within your website there will be hundreds of links embedded within content. Many will be pointing to documents, news articles and downloads as well as external websites.
If an article or document is removed or a URL of an external website changes, then all your links pointing to these URLs will be ‘broken’. The link checker can report on which links in your content require attention.
The Link Checker can be run manually or it can be scheduled to run automatically.
The link checker will report a link broken if:
- the website takes too long to return a response
- the website is down
- the website returns a 4xx or 5xx server response code
- the website returns no response, for example where it blocks requests from robots
Navigating to the Link checker
- Click the Utilities icon in the left navigation bar. The Utilities menu will open.
- Click the Link checker link in the fourth group of links. The "Link checker" management area will now be shown.
Running the Link Checker
To schedule the link checker to run, try the following:
- Navigate to the link checker management area, and click the Schedule tab. The schedule form will be shown.
- Complete the schedule form fields, and click the Save button to save your schedule.
You can trigger an immediate run of the link checker by navigating to the Link checker management area and clicking the Run at next possible time button.
If you trigger the link checker to run, you can cancel this by clicking the Cancel button.
The link checker can occasionally affect site performance, so we recommend scheduling it to run during quiet periods such as the early hours of the morning.
Link Checker Schedule fields
| Field | Notes | Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Enabled | Whether scheduled link checker reporting is enabled. | |
| Frequency | How often you would like the link checker to run. | |
| Schedule | Start time and Day on which you would like the check to run. | |
| Email results to | The email address to which you would like the results mailed to. | ✅ |
Fields checked
The following fields in the application are checked for broken links:
| Content type | Field |
|---|---|
| Adverts | Clickthrough link |
| Document pages | Content |
| Document pages | Image |
| Downloads | File URL |
| Councillors | Content |
| A to Z contacts | External website link |
| A to Z services | Content |
| A to Z services | External URL |
| Events | Description |
| Friendly URLs | Actual address |
| Banners | Links to |
| Homepage widget settings | All saved fields |
| Navigation widget links | Link |
| News | Content |
| News | Image |
| Advert supplement | Link Destination |
| Contact supplement | Links |
| Further info supplement | Link |
| Image supplement | Link destination |
| Navigation supplement | Links |
Additional fields can be added by amending the linkChecker.conf configuration file.