Prior Reading

Rationale

One of the key functions of any LEMDO edition or anthology is to make links—our name is for this reason! Because there are many types of links that LEMDO editors, encoders, and anthology leads make, it is important that we have mechanisms to ensure the links are functional. This documentation will guide you through the process of checking link validity using edition diagnostics, general LEMDO diagnostics, and our anthology link checker.

Step-by-Step: Check Pointer Links Using Edition Diagnostics

You can use your edition diagnostics to check that pointers from your annotations and collation files are formatted correctly. To do so: Run edition diagnostics by opening your modernized text file and clicking the red play button at the top of the Oxygen window. Once the diagnostic page has opened in your browser, navigate to the Annotations and collations whose pointers are in the wrong order diagnostic. If there is a zero after the diagnostic title, there are no issues with the order of pointers in your annotations or collation. If there is a number other than zero after the diagnostic title, open the diagnostic by clicking on the title. Search your edition to find the bad pointer listed in the diagnostic. Check your modernized text to ensure you are linking to anchors in the correct order.

You can also check that all of your pointers link to something using the Pointers not pointing at anything diagnostic. If the number following the diagnostic title is not zero, open the diagnostic and search your edition for the bad pointer. Update the value of the target attribute so that the pointer successfully links to an entity.

Step-by-Step: Check Bad Internal Links Using LEMDO Diagnostics

LEMDO offers two internal link checks in our general diagnostics: urgent and non-urgent. Urgency is based on the status of the file that the bad link is in; files that have a status close to publication should have their links corrected more quickly than those that are in early stages of encoding or remediation. To check bad internal links in your files: Open LEMDO diagnostics through the Resources tab in the top navigation bar of the LEMDO-dev site. If you want to check links in one edition only, type the edition abbreviation in the filter text box. Otherwise, leave it blank. Navigate to the Bad Internal Links diagnostics and check if your files are listed under them. If your files are listed under the bad internal links diagnostics, search your edition for the links listed and correct the links.

Practice: Check External Links Using the Anthology External Links List

Before an anthology can be released, all of its external links must be checked. LEMDO lists all of the external links for each anthology in the anthology’s Jenkins Web page.

To check your anthology’s external links, ask LEMDO Director Janelle Jenstad (lemdo@uvic.ca) to have your anthology’s link check pages added to HCMC’s server. The pages must be uploaded to the HCMC server before external links can be checked. Once they have uploaded the pages, either the LEMDO director or an HCMC developer will tell you where to find your link check pages.

Your anthology’s link check index page on the HCMC server will provide you with instructions to use the W3C Link Checker. Using this tool will allow you to find any 301 (permanently moved pages), 302 (redirected pages), and 404 (dead link) errors.

If there are any link errors, search across your anthology and its editions for the bad URL to and correct any instances of it.

Other Resources LEMDO YouTube video: Releasing Your Anthology (Technical)