FamilySearch Wiki:WikiProject Finding and Fixing broken links using Broken Link Checker

Purpose
The purpose of this project is to use the Check My Links program to identify broken links and fix the broken links on wiki pages. NOTE:****This extension only works on Chrome browser.

Project Contact
Danielle Batson

Task Page

 * England Counties and Topics Task List
 * State Topics Task List
 * U.S. County Pages Task List
 * Beginner Articles
 * Australia State Pages Task List

Instructions
This project is in two parts: PART A: Using Pinger and finding broken links PART B: How to find the correct links using the Wayback machine on Archive.org

Step 1 - Add Check My Links to Chrome browser
1. You must have the Chrome browser. If you do not have it on your computer, you can download Chrome on this website. 2. To download, Check My Links by opening your Chrome browser and go to this website: Check My Links 3. Click on button to add the extension to Chrome. Once it's loaded, restart Chrome. (remember that you only need to add Check My Links to Chrome once) 4. Once you are back in Chrome, navigate to the wiki page you signed up to check for broken links. 5. Once on the wiki page, go to the top right hand corner of the screen click on the check mark. 6. As small dialogue box will appear in the top corner and the page will fill with different colors over the links. Be sure to let the program to finish the page before you do anything. Meaning of links:
 * Dark green: Valid links (link is good)
 * Light green: Redirected links (link is good)
 * Yellow: Warnings (I don't know what that means)
 * Red: Invalid links (you need to fix the link)

PLEASE NOTE:
 * Some red links may not be truly broken. We’ve found some pages that have search fields may be a false positive for being broken, such as for the main page of Ancestry. Just skip them.
 * If you find a broken link that is on more than one page, we will have you report it on the spreadsheet. More information is below in Part B. Danielle can do a Replace Text to fix them all at once.
 * If the wiki page does not respond when you click on Ping All Links or fails to open the menu, trying closing Firefox and opening it up again.
 * Note that the report may give more broken links than appear red on the page.

Part B - Finding New Link
Once you have found a broken link on a wiki page using the Check My Links extension, use the instructions below to see if you can find the new url for the broken link.

Step 1
Go to: https://archive.org/web/ This website is called the Wayback Machine. The Wayback Machine contains cached archive versions of websites and what they looked like over time. You will use this to see what the webpage looked like when the old link worked. You will use the old version of the page to help you determine the new URL.

Step 2
In the Wayback machine URL field, paste in the broken link and press enter.



Step 3
You will now see a calendar that lists when the webpage was archived. Choose a date that has a blue circle around it to see what the page looked like. It is suggested to try a day in the previous year. If the page shows up as a broken link, then try a date 6 months earlier until you see a web page.



Step 4
If the Wayback machine does NOT have an original version of the page, try CachedPages.com to see if it contains a copy. Go to: http://www.cachedpages.com/

Delete the http:// in the Enter URL field and paste the broken URL.



Step 5

 * Once you find the old webpage, go to Google and searching for the new URL. Try taking the beginning portion of the URL to locate a possible page. Also try googling some key words on the old page along with the first part of the URL. '
 * For the broken link: http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/archives/marriage.html from the Wayback Machine you see the words: the name of the website: Illinois State Archives and the database it’s linking to: Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1763-1900
 * Type in google: Illinois state archives statewide marriage index 1763-1900
 * Try out each of the URLS until you find a good match. For this example, the correct match is: http://www.ilsos.gov/isavital/marriagesrch.jsp

Step 6
With the correct new URL, go to the wiki county page and replace the broken link with the new one you have found. Be sure to check the page once you have updated it to be sure the new link you added works.

''' ***NOTE: If you are unable to locate a new link for the broken URL, put the link and identifying information on this spreadsheet. Leave the reference on the wiki page and we will double check it.'''