Tips & Troubleshooting

Tips

The following tips will help you get more out of the Batch Wizard.

• Select an "errors only" or an "errors and warnings only" validation mode instead of a "normal" validation if there are too many "non-important" messages being generated. This can be selected in the General tab of the Batch Wizard Options.
• Each folder target can be set to include subfolders. If a folder target includes subfolders, then an I will be included in the Flags column of the target. You can change whether subfolders are included in the target or not by selecting the folder target or targets that you want to change, bringing up the context menu, and then selecting Selection->Set I Flag or Selection->Clear I Flag.
• Double-clicking on a file or URL target will open it in the editor or view its properties. Which action is performed is determined by a Batch Wizard option that you can change.
• Multiple targets can be selected at the same time by using the standard multiple file selection technique (using Ctrl and/or Shift when selecting targets). You can also select all targets by pressing Ctrl+A
• To delete a target or targets, select the target or targets to delete and press the Delete key or select Target->Delete.
• Targets matching specified strings can be excluded. This allows certain folders to be excluded from processing. These strings may be specified in the Target List Options tab of the Batch Wizard.
• Targets matching specified strings can be treated as case insensitive. This allows better target handling for case insensitive servers. These strings may be specified in the Target List Options tab of the Batch Wizard.
• A URL can be added to test dynamic web pages like ASP, PHP, and CGI pages. Variables can also be included in the URL, like in "http://www.test.com/mycgi.cgi?var1=value1&var2=value2". Agents can also be specified in case the document returned by the server is sensitive to the agent. For example, some dynamic URLs may return a different page for Internet Explorer users than for Firefox users (the server uses the agent to determine what browser is requesting the document). Furthermore, usernames and passwords can also be specified for protected URLs.
  

Limiting Link Checking to Specific Links

You can limit link checking in the Batch Wizard to specified links.

• Links matching specified strings can be excluded from the link check. If a link matched one of these strings, then it will not be checked. These strings may be specified in the Target List Options tab of the Batch Wizard.
• If you only want to check certain links, then you can specify which links should be checked by provided a list of matching strings. If a link matches one of these strings, then it is checked. These strings may be specified in the Target List Options tab of the Batch Wizard.
  

Increasing the Maximum Target Limit

If your system has a lot of resources such as memory, then you may want to override the default maximum target limit of 9999 targets. To do this, use the Registry Editor to change the value of "TargetListLimitMaximum" in the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\AI Internet Solutions\CSE HTML Validator v4\Editor\BatchWizard".

NOTE: The Batch Wizard was not designed and tested for very large jobs. If you change this limit to more than the default of 9999, then be aware that CSE HTML Validator could crash or stop working if not enough resources (such as memory) are available to handle all the targets. If processing fails because of too many targets and not enough resources, then reduce the maximum number of targets.

Troubleshooting

Not Following Links

A common problem that may occur when using the Batch Wizard to validate a website by following links is that not all pages will be checked. Below are some causes and solutions for this problem.

Follow Links Option is Not Checked

Make sure that the follow links option is checked in the Follow Links tab of the target's properties. See the Target Properties Dialog Box topic.

Too Many Errors or Warnings

Links may not be followed if a validation is terminated due to too many errors or too many warnings. When a validation is terminated, CSE HTML Validator stops parsing the document and stops extracting links. To limit this situation from happening for websites containing pages with large numbers of errors and/or warnings, we recommend that an "Errors only" validation be performed first. You can select "Errors only" in the General tab of the Batch Wizard Options.

You may also want to try increasing the maximum number of errors by going to the Validator 1 tab of the Validator Engine Options. A value of 50 or 100 may work better. Once enough errors are corrected in the web pages so that the validations do not terminate, then an "errors and warnings" only validation or "normal" validation can be performed to find further issues.

Another solution to the above problem would be to address/fix the errors and warnings of the pages that the Batch Wizard was able to check, then process the target list again. Continue fixing the errors and warnings and then re-processing the target list (revalidating) until you are satisfied with the results. The key is to get the number of errors and warnings down so that the validations aren't terminated (due to too many errors or too many warnings) and all the links can be extracted, followed, and validated.

Mismatched Quotation Marks

Another possible cause of pages not being checked are mismatched quotation marks. An extra or missing quotation mark in or around attribute values may confuse the parser. If this happens, then the document cannot be parsed properly and links may not be extracted. If this is the case, then many of these messages will be generated: "This line contains part of a quoted string that spans more than one line (not recommended) or a quoted string (like an attribute value) that is missing the start or end quotation mark. Check this line for improperly quoted attribute values that may be missing a start or end quotation mark. As currently configured, HTML Validator requires that all quoted strings be contained on one line and have start and end quotation marks. Note that because of inconsistent handling by user agents, it is not recommended that attribute values contain line breaks.", but only if the allow multi-line quotes option is not checked in the Validator 2 tab of the Validator Engine Options. Look for these messages and correct the problem, then re-process (revalidate) the target list.

Links in JavaScript

If a page's navigation uses JavaScript and the links are embedded in JavaScript, then CSE HTML Validator won't be able to extract them and follow them. Consider adding normal links with no link text using the "a" element at the end of the document just before the </body> tag. CSE HTML Validator may generate a message about no link text for these elements, but this message can be disabled.