> eValid Site Analysis of Dynamically Generated Pages
eValid's Site Analysis feature is an ideal way to analyze a site for
"broken links" on a WebSite.
But what about a site that has pages that are dynamically generated?
This kind of site may present some special problems.
When eValid's Site Analysis engine is spidering the site it makes
requests from the server and analyzes what it gets back. If the
eValid requests a page and the dynamic page server produces a "Generic
Server Lookup Error" -- a code 12000 error -- then eValid reports this
in the "Broken or Unavailable Links" report.
If the eValid requests a page and the dynamic page server produces a
"Page Not Found" error -- a code 404 error -- then eValid reports this
in the "Broken or Unavailable Links" report.
Remember, eValid is operating from the client side of the equation,
and if something gets in the way of correct response it will report
what it finds.
> What Can Be Done About Spurious Unavailable Link Reports?
If you are doing a Site Analysis and you experience variable results
when you choose eValid's "Broken or Unavailable Link" filter you can:
* Rerun the analysis and see if the results repeat? Sometimes a
link that appears to be broken at one time is "alive" later on.
* Run the analysis on your LAN -- so that Web performance issues
that may exist between your copy of eValid and the machines that
generate the pages do not become an issue. Many times, a link
appears to eValid to be broken because the server is overloaded,
or the Web is overloaded, or your connection has timed out, etc.
* Make sure the server really IS producing the page correctly. 99%
of the time a broken link really is broken when eValid says it
really is!
Remember, eValid's analyses are entirely browser based, so the results
you see are what your users will see if they browse your site. Every
eValid "broken or unavailable link" is a serious potential problem.
|