Using Xenu to check for broken links in Flare output

This forum is for all Flare related Tips and Tricks.
Have a tip or trick you use while working in Flare? Share it here.
Post Reply
jeniv
Jr. Propeller Head
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Mar 02, 2015 10:43 am

Using Xenu to check for broken links in Flare output

Post by jeniv »

Here’s a tip for anyone trying to use Xenu to check for broken links in Flare. With Robohelp I always used Xenu to check for broken links, and it worked very well. When I tried it with Flare, it only checked the top level because it seems that Flare handles the TOC differently from Robohelp. I was able to get Xenu to work with Flare output by creating a dummy topic and inserting a TOC proxy in it. I then generated the output and pointed Xenu to the dummy topic. Voila! Xenu then successfully checked all my links, just as it had done in RoboHelp.
ChoccieMuffin
Senior Propellus Maximus
Posts: 2630
Joined: Wed Apr 14, 2010 8:01 am
Location: Surrey, UK

Re: Using Xenu to check for broken links in Flare output

Post by ChoccieMuffin »

...or you could use Madcap Analyzer instead...
Started as a newbie with Flare 6.1, now using Flare 2023.
Report bugs at http://www.madcapsoftware.com/bugs/submit.aspx.
Request features at https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx
devjoe
Sr. Propeller Head
Posts: 337
Joined: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:43 pm

Re: Using Xenu to check for broken links in Flare output

Post by devjoe »

The problems with using Analyzer to check links are:
  • If you have links across merged projects, Analyzer reports all of those as bad because it doesn't see the other project
  • If you have conditionally excluded topics, Analyzer doesn't detect if there are non-excluded links to the excluded topics.
NorthEast
Master Propellus Maximus
Posts: 6359
Joined: Mon Mar 05, 2007 8:33 am

Re: Using Xenu to check for broken links in Flare output

Post by NorthEast »

I can see Xenu would be useful for external links - so it'd be handy for merged projects.

Just to be clear, you can check for broken links using Project Analysis in Flare - you don't need the separate Analyzer app.
devjoe wrote:If you have conditionally excluded topics, Analyzer doesn't detect if there are non-excluded links to the excluded topics.
Links to an excluded topic will not created as (broken) links in the output though - it removes the actual link, and just includes the link text.

The build log will also tell you about these links to excluded topics.
Post Reply