Link Checker by AddonsLab [Paid] 1.17.0

[AddonsLab]

When a url does not have http or https in front it gives this error: 999 Local or invalid URL (URL has unsupported protocol or tries to load local data)

But most of them are working correct, like www.xenforo.com

The URL BB Code tag cannot have a link without http or https in the URL. The example URL you have posted is actually converted to http://www.xenforo.com Here is a screenshot demonstrating it from our test board:


If you edit the BB Code manually and save it without http, it will add the http. Please check the post where you see the issue. If you see a BB code in its source code, that looks like:

[URL]www.xenforo.com[/URL]

this should be an error of your importer software, that you used to import your data from some other forum to XenForo. Editing/saving will fix such posts.

We will test this specific case in the upcoming version, and see if we can implement support for such cases. The problem with just adding "http://" in front of such links is that some of them are actually broken, and need admin's attention in the original form (e.g. javascript:void() used as URL), so adding http in front of it will only make the problem more complex for admins to understand, what went wrong.

Thank you!

 

[dutchbb]

The batch update links is not working correct i think. I tried removing 25k timeout links and it removes 100-700 links at a time and then i have to restart it.

Or is this how it works?

Also when you have more images in a post then allowed in your setting it will stop the process.

 

[dutchbb]

The URL BB Code tag cannot have a link without http or https in the URL. The example URL you have posted is actually converted to http://www.xenforo.com Here is a screenshot demonstrating it from our test board:
View attachment 159069

If you edit the BB Code manually and save it without http, it will add the http. Please check the post where you see the issue. If you see a BB code in its source code, that looks like:

[URL]www.xenforo.com[/URL]

this should be an error of your importer software, that you used to import your data from some other forum to XenForo. Editing/saving will fix such posts.

We will test this specific case in the upcoming version, and see if we can implement support for such cases. The problem with just adding "http://" in front of such links is that some of them are actually broken, and need admin's attention in the original form (e.g. javascript:void() used as URL), so adding http in front of it will only make the problem more complex for admins to understand, what went wrong.

Thank you!

They have indeed http in front, but are structured like this.

[URL='http://www.dutch-fitness.tk']www.dutch-fitness.tk[/URL]

 

[AddonsLab]

The batch update links is not working correct i think. I tried removing 25k timeout links and it removes 100-700 links at a time and then i have to restart it.

Or is this how it works?

Also when you have more images in a post then allowed in your setting it will stop the process.

Yes, this is a limitation of the current version, it processes a limited number of links each time (can be set in Batch Update page, but setting the number too high may cause timeout). The new version will have this part rewritten to support cron/delayed type of deleting the links, so it will be possible to delete any number of links.

We will check the other issues reported and make sure they are fixed in the next release.

Thank you!

 

[Alpha1]

Maybe add a CLI tool?

 

[rfc0001]

A common issue with Xenforo is the default permalink to a post is very brittle, therefore we end up with a bunch of broken links which no longer take you to the desired post, but rather the first post in the thread. E.g. a default permalink will break if you move the post to another thread, merge threads, or change the default forum posts per page. When this occurs, the link still "works", but it redirects to the first post on the thread, rather than the actual post. The solution to this problem going forward is to change the post and post_permalink tempates to use the posts URL rather than threads URL for permalinks, however this only works for new permalinks. We now need to go back and replace all the old style permalinks:

E.g. anything with the following format:

https://xyz.com/forum/threads/abc-123.1/page-4#post-30882

needs replaced with

https://xyz.com/forum/posts/30882

So 2 questions:

1) will this add in detect when a post permalink is "broken" (redirected to the thread instead of the actual post)
2) is there a way to replace the default permalinks containing the pattern "/threads/abc-123.1/page-4#post-30882" with "/posts/30882". Doing so would require regular expressions or wildcard replacement, e.g. replacing "threads/*#post-" with "posts/"

Thanks.

 

[AddonsLab]

Hello, @rfc0001 !

1) will this add in detect when a post permalink is "broken" (redirected to the thread instead of the actual post)

No, redirects are considered "valid" links in general, so they will not be reported as broken. However, in batch update page you can easily find all such links by looking for redirect links, which have the domain of your site and contain "/threads/" in the URL. More advanced regular expressions in searching are supported as well.

2) is there a way to replace the default permalinks containing the pattern "/threads/abc-123.1/page-4#post-30882" with "/posts/30882". Doing so would require regular expressions or wildcard replacement, e.g. replacing "threads/*#post-" with "posts/"

Yes, there is full regular expression support in the product, in both matching and replacing mode, so the replacement mentioned is completely possible (but should follow regular expression syntax to work, and we can help you with proper formatting).

Just let us know if you have any other questions.

Thank you!

 

[rfc0001]

Hello, @rfc0001 !

No, redirects are considered "valid" links in general, so they will not be reported as broken. However, in batch update page you can easily find all such links by looking for redirect links, which have the domain of your site and contain "/threads/" in the URL. More advanced regular expressions in searching are supported as well.

Yes, there is full regular expression support in the product, in both matching and replacing mode, so the replacement mentioned is completely possible (but should follow regular expression syntax to work, and we can help you with proper formatting).

Just let us know if you have any other questions.

Thank you!

Perfect, thanks!

 

[dutchbb]

An option to keep the link text but delete the url would also be something usefull in some cases.

 

[dutchbb]

Sometimes an url has a correct 301 (from old to new domain or page) but it will end up on a 404. Would there be a way to check the final page instead of just 301?

 

[AddonsLab]

Sometimes an url has a correct 301 (from old to new domain or page) but it will end up on a 404. Would there be a way to check the final page instead of just 301?

We decided to have the redirects as separate status for two reasons:

1. Admins may want to know which URLs redirect, even if they end up with status 200, so that do the actual replacements manually. Following the redirects and showing the final status may affect these cases.

2. Not following redirects by default prevents the performance issues when a link could have multiple (or even wrong recursive redirects), which means the client would do multiple requests, each of which takes time to complete.

We will try to find some solution, that would both solve the case you have mentioned and would be performance optimized, still allowing admins to see redirecting links as redirects, but the ones, that end up with an invalid status will be shown under invalid links.

Thank you!

 

[dutchbb]

Links that timeout with check dead links rebuild are valid sometimes when you check them one at a time.

Some extra suggestions:

- multi-select links in manage links for recheck
- search in action log so you can find links of the same domain to restore manual.
- replace url with link text option
- exclude domains from batch update

 

[AddonsLab]

Links that timeout with check dead links rebuild are valid sometimes when you check them one at a time.

Some extra suggestions:

- multi-select links in manage links for recheck
- search in action log so you can find links of the same domain to restore manual.
- replace url with link text option

The reason for different behavior in batch-update and single check mode is the fact, that in batch update mode the links are checked frequantly, and if the requests to the same server are made with higher frequency than expected, the servers may stop serving the information. We tried to fix this by implementing special support for 429 response code (too many requests), but obviously some servers just timeout the requests instead of sending that header.

> - multi-select links in manage links for recheck

Manage links does not have advanced interface for re-checking/batch controls, as we have a separate batch-update and data rebuild pages. In the new version these both pages will be enhanced with advanced link search/filter interface, so you can quickly narrow-down the links you want to re-check in Rebuild Data page.

> - search in action log so you can find links of the same domain to restore manual.

This will be implemented (in the first upcoming release or a bit later)

> - replace url with link text option

This will be available in the new version.

Thank you!

 

[dutchbb]

Any idea when to expect the new update?

 

[AddonsLab]

Any idea when to expect the new update?

We are practically ready with the rewrite and already implementing new features, among them moderation queue support, ability to search by thread/post date or in a thread with particular ID, delete the link leaving its text only, ability to delete the entire post/thread containing the links, search filters for internal/external domains and search for any domain.

Due to the change, we are developing this add-on (using automated testing engine - PHPUnit), the time needed for all these is much more than usual, which makes our estimates not correct so far. We do hope, however, to have the fully ready version within this week.

Thank for your understanding and support.

Thank you!

 

[Nirjonadda]

We are practically ready with the rewrite and already implementing new features, among them moderation queue support, ability to search by thread/post date or in a thread with particular ID, delete the link leaving its text only, ability to delete the entire post/thread containing the links, search filters for internal/external domains and search for any domain.

Due to the change, we are developing this add-on (using automated testing engine - PHPUnit), the time needed for all these is much more than usual, which makes our estimates not correct so far. We do hope, however, to have the fully ready version within this week.

Thank for your understanding and support.

Thank you!

Great improvement, Still waiting for this update ...

 

[AddonsLab]

Hello, everyone!

We would like to confirm, that our board at https://addonslab.com/ already runs the new version. You can see it working with URL, video and image tests at https://addonslab.com/threads/link-checker-tests.313/

You can login with test admin account to be able to force-check URL statuses in posts containing videos and to see the moderation queue. Using test user accounts you can also get alerts about the content you posted.

Here are some screenshots showing an alert of a post author when a link (URL, image or media) in their post is broken, the moderation queue with all invalid items found and the new interface of Admin Panel Batch Update page.

Feel free to test the product on our board in the thread linked above.

We are doing some final tests and preparing the product and release it soon.

Thank you!

 

[AddonsLab]

AddonsLab updated Link Checker by AddonsLab with a new update entry:

Major upgrade with many new features and fixes

We are glad to announce the release of the next version of Link Checker, which is a complete rewrite of the product with many new features implemented.

Please check the main add-on description for detailed information on how the add-on works.

Here is a quick overview of features implemented in this version:

1. Support for three types of BB Code tags - URL, MEDIA and IMG. Supported media types are YouTube, DailyMotion, Vimeo. Other media types can be supported if requested.
2. A...

Read the rest of this update entry...

 

[Nirjonadda]

How to upgrade? Disable the current add-on then upload files and XML then Re-enable the add-on after updates completed?

 

[AddonsLab]

How to upgrade? Disable the current add-on then upload files and XML then Re-enable the add-on after updates completed?

Exactly. The files need to be uploaded via FTP, the XML needs to be imported from Admin Panel. And only after both steps are completed you can enable the add-on.

Thank you!