This article refers to a legacy WMS process
This article refers to a process used on sites that have not been migrated to the New WMS yet.
If your site is already migrated, consult the Index of documentation for the McGill Web Management System.
OVERVIEW
Target audience: Site Administrators, Site Managers, Site Editors
The Web Management System (WMS) includes a link checker on each website that automatically and continuously checks for broken links.
In this article:
- How the link checker works
- Broken links report (available to Site Administrators and Site Managers only)
- Broken links list at the top of pages in Edit mode (available to Site Administrators, Site Managers, and Site Editors)
How the link checker works
The link checker runs continuously, scanning each content node (e.g., web pages, blocks, Channels News, Channels Events, etc.) in the WMS approximately every two to four weeks. Each node is checked for broken links to other nodes or external sites.
You can view broken links in two ways:
- Broken links for all nodes on the site are listed on a Broken links report, viewable only by Site Administrators and Site Managers. The affected pages can be accessed directly from the report.
- The Broken links list displays broken links on individual pages in Edit mode. Available to Site Administrators, Site Managers, and Site Editors.
Once a broken link is fixed or removed, it disappears from both of the areas described above.
Note: The link check is applied to ALL nodes (whether published or unpublished), so broken links on unpublished pages will remain listed until the link is fixed/removed, or until the unpublished page is deleted.
Broken links report (available to Site Administrators and Site Managers only)
To see a broken links report:
- After signing in to your website, click Reports in the site administration menu.
- Click Broken links.
The Broken links report shows each broken link found on all nodes of a site (published and unpublished) since the last round of link checking.
The report has four columns:
- URL: The full URL of the broken link
- RESPONSE and ERROR: Common status codes include:
- 404 Not Found
- 503 Service Unavailable
- 301 Moved Permanently
For definitions of all status codes, see the Wikipedia page: List of HTTP status codes
- OPERATIONS: A link to the node containing the broken link. Click the link to go directly to the page and fix the issue.
Broken links list at the top of pages in Edit mode (available to Site Administrators, Site Managers, and Site Editors)
When accessing a page in Edit mode, the broken links on that node are displayed with details inside a yellow box at the top of the page.
These messages show the number of times the link failed during each round of link checking (approximately every two to four weeks).
For definitions of all status codes, see the Wikipedia page: List of HTTP status codes
NOTES:
- When using redirect links (e.g., https://mcgill.ca/itsupport/wms instead of https://mcgill.service-now.com/itportal?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0010904), the link checker will display a "301 moved permanently" error. This is expected. Whenever possible, use a direct link instead of a redirect.
- For links to other WMS sites that do resolve but still show a "301 Moved Permanently" error, add a trailing slash "/" at the end of the URL to prevent it from appearing on the broken links reports. Example: https://www.mcgill.ca/sitename/
