Automation MadCap Flare Technical communication

Automated QA: Checking for broken links in your Flare output – now also for HTTP links

Posted on Author msander Comments(5)

The CheckLinks tool now also finds broken http and https links in addition to finding broken local relative links.

The syntax for running the tool is, for example:

C:\> Checklinks2 "C:\OutputFolder" "C:\LogFolder"

For info about the existing tool, see http://techwritingengineer.com/automated-qa-checking-for-broken-links-in-your-flare-output/

msander

Related Articles
Javascript MadCap Flare

How to add wiki-words to your HTML5 output in MadCap Flare

Posted on Author msander

Would you like to link certain words or phrases to your internal wiki, or perhaps to Wikipedia? Would you like to build your output only once, but still be able differentiate between “internal” and “external” audiences? Keep reading. The idea 🙂 The idea is to add a span-class to your style sheet, and then highlight […]

Origami crane.
Origami Technical communication

How to fold an origami crane

Posted on Author msander

As a kid I wanted to learn how to do origami. It was pure magic to see someone take a square piece of paper and turn it into a bird, a frog, or even an elephant. I decided to give it a try, and got a book from the library. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out […]
Technical communication

User documentation at McDonald’s

Posted on Author msander

In 2003 I spent six months working at the local drive-through McDonald’s restaurant. My daily work ranged from flipping burgers to taking orders from both walk-in and drive-through customers. The job was stressful, painful and a great experience: I learned first hand about the activities in the incredible value chain that keeps the McWorld in […]

5 Replies to “Automated QA: Checking for broken links in your Flare output – now also for HTTP links”

  1. This sounds good. But when I run it nothing happens: no error message but no text file either.

    Any ideas what the problem might be?

    Reply

    1. Great, thanks. That works fine. It doesn’t like it if you leave trailing backslashes in the paths though. I get:

      Unhandled Exception: System.ArgumentException: Illegal characters in path.
      at System.IO.Path.CheckInvalidPathChars(String path, Boolean checkAdditional)
      at System.IO.Path.GetFileName(String path)
      at System.IO.StreamWriter.CreateFile(String path, Boolean append, Boolean checkHost)
      at System.IO.StreamWriter..ctor(String path, Boolean append, Encoding encoding, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean checkHost)
      at System.IO.File.InternalWriteAllText(String path, String contents, Encoding encoding, Boolean checkHost)
      at System.IO.File.WriteAllText(String path, String contents)
      at HREF_CHECKER.Module1.WriteLogFile(String logText, String logPath)
      at HREF_CHECKER.Module1.Main()

      Feature request: print some output on the command line – e.g.
      “x broken links found. See log file ”

      Thanks again. That’s a really useful little tool.

      Reply

      1. In my previous comment I used angle-bracketed text which disappeared on submit.
        After “See log file” add the path/name of the log file.

        Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *