A content link checker I wanted to build something useful using microservices. It's a link...
A content link checker
I wanted to build something useful using microservices. It's a link checker for HTML topics in the Brightspace LMS.
The idea comes from a similar tool that UWaterloo built and used when I worked there. The execution is unique.
Demo: https://coursedevtools.rickyharor.com/LinkChecker (scroll down to the green section with a "Demo" button)
التعليقات
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I think that since D2L is not committed to moving in this direction, it is a great idea to build one. https://desire2learn.brightidea.com/ideas/D653
I would be more interested in having on a site level for admins, but if it were in courses, on a course level, we could make using it and reporting the findings to the instructional design team part of required pre-term prep work for instructors, and expect that they would do it as diligently as the rest of the prep work.
Here is another kind of "broken" link we see a lot. It is internal, not external, but it only affects students most of the time.
An instructor copies and pastes the html content of an announcement, tool description, or course page into a similar item in a different course. The html content includes a link to a D2L tool item. It is not a broken link, and it works for the instructor and for an admin or tech with a cascading. But students get a permission error. Role impersonation does not expose the problem, because the person impersonating the role has their own permissions governing access. The only way to know is to actually look at the OU in the link target (something instructors don't think to do, or to impersonate an actual student (something we don't allow students to do). This would be a good thing to be able to detect.
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Thanks for checking out the tool and providing feedback @Renee Judd.
Link validation reporting isn't limited to just a widget in the course. There are several options. It can be customized to run on an interval (daily, weekly, monthly, termly) and email specific users when there are invalid links, log in to my web application to view link reports, or log in to manually run and view reports. Those are just some of the options.
In terms of OU checking, it currently does look for internal Brightspace links and checks them. It is on my list to add the logic to check if the OU is correct on internal links. I agree that it can be easily missed when testing and doing term prep.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or feedback.
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Brilliant! Will bookmark that for sure...
