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General discussion

I need a link checker program

Jan 24, 2005 10:20PM PST

So far every link checking program I have been able to find on the net only checks Favorites/Bookmarks, website html documents, dead system links for windows, and dead shortcut links.

What I am actually looking for is a program that will read text/doc files that have URL links typed into them to check those links before I process the information as webpages. I would like to be able to verify the URL in those types of files before the webpages are created rather than after the fact when another program would then be able to check them instead.

Checking each URL in the text/doc type files requires manually copying/pasting into the addressbar one at a time and checking them that way ahead of time.....and it's getting very time consuming, but then I can change the URL if it's broken or dead easier in the text/doc file than it can be done with the website link checker because many times the site in the website is redirected and it ends up at another page within the site that basically says the page doesn't exist anymore......causing actually a deadlink in the webpages of my site without my knowing it because the redirected page isn't 'dead' in an actual sense since it actually loads up a page telling you the original doesn't exist.

That's not acceptable to me.......and if a text/doc file can be checked instead, those types of URL errors are easier to fix in the text/doc file before the pages are created by me for my site.

Does anybody have a clue about where I might find the type of link checker I'm searching for? It doesn't have to be free......just file specific instead of only being able to check website links. I already have good programs for site checking.....but none of them are able to check text/doc files.

TONI

Discussion is locked

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See if this does the job Toni
Jan 25, 2005 12:36AM PST

This one may help -as well as checking browser links part of it's description says
"The new extended URL import capability of Check&Get 2.0 allows you to import links directly from a browser window, HTML or text file or even from office documents (in fact from any file even if the file has the unknown or binary format); "
http://activeurls.com/en/features.htm

****

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I wrote them a detailed email
Jan 25, 2005 1:02AM PST

to get more specific information, but it appears on the surface that this is what I might be looking for. The screen shots on that site only show bookmarks/favorites, but I'm assuming it would be configurable to point to text/doc files instead since they are also inside folders and can be checked 'en masse' like the Favorites folder. Thank you very much.

TONI

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Toni
Jan 25, 2005 9:22AM PST
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My answer there
Jan 25, 2005 7:20PM PST

This is what I've been doing manually already and for my text files that don't give hyperlinks, I have to copy/paste each one separately into the addressbar and manually check each one. I was hoping to find a program that could scan each text file inside a folder, see the URL and check it behind the scenes just like the checker does in Front Page for broken links. Then if the program sees that the URL is being redirected or is dead, it would be able to tell me in its own program window.

I think I need to connect with somebody who knows how to do programming so I can get into collaboration with them to write the types of programs I really want.....maybe we could make some money together. I dream them up and they write it. LOL

I got an answer back from the company **** White mentioned and they seem to think that their program will do what I want......but if I understand the email I would have to make up one whole doc file with all of the text URL links in it in one document (which means manually copy/paste from all of my text files to another document) and then have their program check that one document full of links. That's even more work than what I'm doing now if this is the case because I'll have to keep track of each URL I copy/paste to know which text file it came from. But their program has a trial version that I can download and try out first fortunately......so I'll go get it and give it whirl. If I read the email wrong, I'll be happy and buy their product.

TONI

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I love you, still
Feb 1, 2005 6:55AM PST

After nearly ten years, you are still saving me....

The program I finally found that checks text files (and multiple ones at a time to boot) is called Check&Get at http://activeurls.com

It cost $40 for a single user license, but it gets the job done quickly.

I'm still playing with it to see if I can add a folder to the list and have it check a whole folder at one time rather than have to select each text file individually to add it to the check window. But even if I can't figure that out, the fact that it doesn't require me to copy and paste each url into an area to check it is the biggest bonus of all.

I've just been moving the checked text files to a separate folder so I don't check the same ones again by accident, and there's no limit to how many of them I can select at one time to check. Cool program with lots of potential since the learning curve took all of fifteen minutes to get the hang of it.....and now I can play with possible other options.

Thank you hugely, ****.....

TONI

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Re: I need a link checker program
Jan 25, 2005 5:22PM PST
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Sites you gave
Jan 25, 2005 7:38PM PST

AnalogX's keyword checker isn't what I am looking for, but got it anyway for later on...thanks

I download the linkchecker program from the second site to give it a run and see if it's able to do what I want.

The third program is $1500 and way too expensive for my site since my site is a free to everybody site and I won't be making any money off it to justify that price.

I'll let you know about the linkchecker program...thanks for that one.

TONI

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Toni,
Jan 28, 2005 11:09AM PST
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I tried this one, Frank
Jan 28, 2005 8:34PM PST

and although the limited Help files indicates that you can check the contents of a folder (one with text/doc files presumably), it doesn't seem to make that task very easy to do or doesn't at all. One of the default folders you can have it check is the Recent Documents folder and even dragging multiple files to that folder as shortcuts, doesn't have the program check the files that are in it. It appears it wants you to specifically provide the URL contained in the file before it can do anything, and I'm already doing that manually.

So far it looks like the only one that I get the results I want is a program called Check & Get....you have to import files individually, one at a time, but you can line them all up in the same window and they will all be checked quickly. Then you just drag those files from that window (they are all just links to the files and not the actual originals) to another folder you create that indicates you've checked them already and import a bunch more files into the now blank 'checker' window.

Pretty rapid checking with good results if the page has been redirected to a good new page, redirected to an error but existing page on the site telling you the page no longer exists that you have a link for, or redirected to a 'page cannot be found' error page.

I guess this is the program I will be buying. It's a little bit trial and error to figure out how to do some things, but once you get the pattern down it goes pretty fast and everything is displayed quickly in an Outlook Express type Preview window with the Files at the top and the browser window at the bottom so you can actually see the page and know immediately if the link is working correctly. Can't beat that with a stick.......and with the preview page, I can know right away if I'm being directed to someplace really bad and can delete the link immediately in real time from the file and know if I'm inadvertently sending somebody at my site to dangerous ground somewhere.

TONI