[Web4lib] linkchecker advice

[Richard Wiggins]

Dan raises a very good point.  This is why an Error 404 handler needs to be
coded correctly, so that it returns a real Error 404 status code.  If you
have an error handler that traps the condition and returns what appears to
be a live page, then link checkers and spiders are fooled into thinking
they've found the real, live content.

A colleague and I wrote about this a few years ago.  See:
http://www.webreference.com/new/011004.html

/rich

On 1/17/06, Dan Lester <dan at riverofdata.com> wrote:
>
> One thing to remember, however, is that a link checker will only catch
> a very few of the "missing journals".  As long as the link goes to
> some page, it won't report an error.  That page may no longer have a
> valid link to the content, may say that the journal is no longer
> available, may have links to only some of what you've paid for, etc.
>
> That doesn't mean you shouldn't use one, just that you shouldn't
> accept the results as definitive.
>
>
> Monday, January 16, 2006, 2:17:08 PM, you wrote:
>
> EH> We're excited about the possibilities exhibited
> EH> by Kevin A. Freitas'
> EH> LinkChecker Extension for Firefox.....
>
> EH> http://www.kevinfreitas.net/extensions/linkchecker/
>
>
> >>How does one handle link checking of large
> >>ejournal collection?
>
>
>
> --
> Dan Lester, Data Wrangler  dan at RiverOfData.com 208-283-7711
> 3577 East Pecan, Boise, Idaho  83716-7115 USA
> www.riverofdata.com  The Road Goes On Forever....
>
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