LibGuide Sustainability & Troubleshooting

Add a New Link to a Guide

To create a brand new link from scratch and add it to your guide:

1. While editing your guide, click on the Add / Reorder button at the bottom of the box where you want add this.
2. Select Link from the dropdown menu.
3. Give your link a name in the Link Name field.
   1. This is what display's as the text of the link (i.e. what users will click on).
   2. It's also how the link will be identified in your assets library and statistics.
4. In the Link URL field, enter the full URL of the page you're linking to (including the http:// or https://).
5. Use the Window Target field to select whether to open the link in a new or the current window.
6. If proxy authentication is required to view the link (e.g. a link to a journal article), set the Use Proxy setting to Yes.
   1. When enabled, LibGuides will automatically prepend your proxy URL to the link URL.
   2. Note: this requires your Admin to provide your library's proxy URL in your LibGuides system settings.
7. If you would like to add a description about the link, enter it in the Description field.
8. You can also enter additional details about the link in the More Info field.
   1. Users will see a More Info link appear below the description.
   2. When a user clicks the link, the text from the More Info field will expand onto the page.
9. To customize how the description appears on the page, choose your preference from the Description Display options.
   1. Display beneath item title: this will display the full text of the description on the page, right below the title.
   2. Hover over item title: this will display the description in a popover when a user hovers over the title.
   3. Hover over "info" icon: an info (i) icon will appear next to the title. When a user hovers over it, a popover will appear displaying the description.
   4. Hide description: if you would like to hide the description, select this option. This will not hide the More Info field.
10. Use the Position option to choose where the new asset should be inserted in the box. (Don't worry: you can always reorder it later.)
11. Optionally, you can assign resource icons to your link. Click on the Assign Resource Icons panel to select the icons to use.
12. Optionally, you can display a thumbnail image (such as a logo) next to your link. Click on the Assign Thumbnail Image, then click the Browse button to upload or select an image from your Image Manager library.
13. Click the Save button.

Tips for Adding Database Links

• Databases have been added to the system as an asset, please remember to use the "Database" option when adding links to databases within our A-Z List. 

• Arrange databases in order of importance, not alphabetical order (users will tend to choose the first few databases listed, not necessarily the most relevant database).

Adding Databases to a Guide

1. While editing your guide, click on the Add / Reorder button at the bottom of the box where you want add this.

2. Select Database from the dropdown menu.

3. In the Search for Database field, start typing in the name of the database you want to add.

   1. Can't find it? Check your A-Z Database List page to make sure it's been added.

   2. If it's not listed, then an Admin user will need to create the database before you will be able add it to your guide.

4. Select the database you want to add from the list of results.

   1. If a database is currently set to Hidden, you will see a  This item is hidden from public view status next to it.

   2. Although you can still add a hidden database to your guide, it will not display on the public view of your guide until an admin has removed its Hidden status in your A-Z Database List.

5. A summary of the database info will appear.

   1. Not the database you are looking for? No problem: search again and select a different one.

6. If you'd like, you can customize the database's description. Please note that this will only apply to this single mapping of the database. It will not affect the original database's description.

   1. In the Custom Description field, you can enter your own description for this database as it appears on your guide. This will override the database's default description.

   2. Regardless of whether you add your own custom description, you can also customize how the description displays on your guide (e.g. beneath the title, on hover, or not at all).

7. Use the Position dropdown to select where in the box the new database will be inserted. (Don't worry: you can always reorder this later.)

8. Click the Save button.

Group, edit, and remove links in a guide

1. To manage a link, click on the its Edit () icon.

   1.  To add another link to this asset group, select  Add to Group and follow the steps above to create or reuse a link.

      • What's an asset group? When you add links next to each other in a box, they will automatically form a group.

      • Links in a group can be sorted by title; plus, when reordering content, you can move the entire group at once instead of each link individually.

   2. To customize the link's description, select  Edit.

      • If this is a mapped asset, please note that this will only apply to this single mapping of the link. It will not affect the original link's description.

   3. To remove the link from your guide, select  Remove.

      • This will only remove the link from your guide. It will not delete the link from your assets library (Content > Assets) and can still be reused.

Editing links in your assets library

The assets library is where all reusable assets are stored in your LibGuides system. From here, you can centrally manage your assets, as well as create new ones.

• Admin users can edit any asset in the system.
• Regular users with the Manage Assets permission (CMS only) can also edit any asset.
• All other Regular and Editor users can only edit the assets they own.

To edit your link assets:

The link checker provides you with a report of broken links in your:

• Database assets
• Link assets
• Books from the Catalog assets

If you want the link checker to exclude checking certain links or domains (like your library catalog or any proxied links), add those links / domains to the Exclusions list! We recommend adding domains for any sites that require a login, as the Link Checker does not have any way to log into the site to verify that the link is valid, so it will always be listed as "broken" in your report (a.k.a., a false positive).

Here's what the link checker report shows you:

1. Use the Actions column to dismiss a link or add it to the exclusions list.
2. Use the Title column to filter/search for links by their title.
   • This is the title of the asset.
3. Use the Type column to filter the report by type (Link, Book, or Database).
4. The URL column will show the URL that was flagged as being broken by the link checker.
5. The Owner column will display the owner of the asset.
6. The Mapping Count column will show you how many times the asset is being used on guides.
7. The Asset column will allow you to edit the asset.

Frequently asked questions

How often does the link checker run?

The link checker is enabled 24/7, checking for broken links every 30 minutes on the hour and half-hour in all regions except the U.S. For customers in the U.S. region, the link checker is enabled between the following hours to optimize system performance:

• Monday, 5pm - Tuesday, 8am
• Tuesday, 5pm - Wednesday, 8am
• Wednesday, 5pm - Thursday, 8am
• Thursday, 5pm - Friday, 8am
• Friday, 5pm - Monday, 8am (i.e. it runs all weekend)

What links are checked?

To optimize performance of the link checker, links are only checked on visited pages in published or private guides while the link checker is enabled (see above section for details). When a user views a page, it will be scanned by the link checker the next time it is scheduled to run. That page will not be scanned again for 30 days following its last scan.

Who can use the link checker?

Any regular or admin user can access the link checker report. Although regular users can see every link listed in the report, they can only modify links for the assets they own. Admin users, however, can modify every link because they have the ability to edit any asset in your system.

Why is the link checker reporting links that aren't really broken?

False positives can occur with the link checker for a few reasons. Unfortunately, all of these things are out of our control. :/

• When the Link Checker pinged that URL, that server really was down.
• When the Link Checker pinged that URL, that server was so busy serving other requests that ours timed out.
• The company / organization who owns that server set it up to refuse any connections from spiders, crawlers, etc., to save bandwidth / resources.
• The company / organization who owns that server incorrectly set up their server response codes, meaning the code returned was inaccurate.

It can also return false positives if it's checking links that require a password before the page loads. Since the Link Checker cannot log into that site to verify the page, it returns the link as "bad". Or the server it's checking might refuse the connection altogether, as noted in the bullet points above. Please add domains that require logins to the Exclusions list. 

Editing a link via the link checker

To edit a broken link asset directly from the link checker report:

1. Go to  Tools > Link Checker from the command bar.
2. In the datatable on the Report tab, click on the Edit () icon in the Asset column for the asset that you want to edit. (Note: Regular users can only edit the links they own.)
3. Edit the asset and save your changes. (Note: changes you make to the asset will be reflected the next time the link checker runs.)
   • If you would rather delete an Asset altogether, go to Content > Assets.
4. Dismiss the link to remove it from the report by clicking the Dismiss from this report () icon in the Actions column. (Note: if you do not dismiss the asset, it will remain in the report, even though the link has been fixed.)

Dismiss a link from the link checker

Links can be dismissed from the report individually or in bulk. You may dismiss a link from the report after you have edited it ( and corrected the broken link), if it was a false positive that you can ignore, or for any other reason that you might not want to see it on the report. :) 

1. Go to  Tools > Link Checker from the command bar.
2. In the datatable on the Report tab, you can either dismiss the links individually by clicking the Dismiss from this report () icon in the Actions column. Or you can dismiss multiple links at once by:
   1. Clicking on the checkbox for each link -- or selecting all links on the page by clicking the Select All checkbox.
   2. Clicking the Dismiss selected button. 

Please note: Regular users can only dismiss the links they own. Dismissing a link does not prevent it from re-appearing in the link checker when it runs in the future. To permanently prevent a link from appear, add it to the exclusions list instead.

Add links to the exclusions list

To prevent links from reappearing in the link checker, you can add it to the exclusions list. Links can be excluded from the link checker in two ways:

• From a link that has already been flagged by the report
• Manually from the Exclusions tab.

The exclusions list can come in handy for preventing false positives from constantly reappearing in future link checker reports.

Option 1. Exclude a link via the link checker report

1. Go to  Tools > Link Checker from the command bar.
2. In the datatable on the Report tab, click the Add to Exclusion Lists () icon for the link in the Actions column.

Option 2: Manually add a link URL to the list

Note:  Only admin account holders can manually add exclusions.

1. Go to  Tools > Link Checker from the command bar.
2. Click on the Exclusions tab,
3. Click the  Add Item button to open up the Add/Edit Item window.

4. On the Add/Edit Item modal, give the exclusion a Title.
5. Add the URL to be excluded from the link checker
   • Entering a full page link will only exclude that page (e.g., http://excludedsite.com/page.html). 
   • Entering only the domain will exclude all pages on that site (e.g., http://excludedsite.com).
   • Protip: Add an exclusion for your proxy prefix so the link checker ignores any of your proxied URLs.
6. Click Save to add the exclusion.

Add an entire domain to the exclusions list

If you find that you're adding multiple links from the same site to the exclusions list, you can add the site's domain name to the exclusions list. This will prevent all URLs from that domain from appear in future link checker reports.

Full domains can be excluded from the link checker from the Exclusions tab.

Note:  Only admin account holders can manually add exclusions.

1. Go to  Tools > Link Checker from the command bar.
2. Click on the Exclusions tab,
3. Click the  Add Item button to open up the Add/Edit Item window.

4. On the Add/Edit Item modal, give the exclusion a Title.
5. Add the URL to be excluded from the link checker
   • Entering only the domain will exclude all pages on that site (e.g., http://excludedsite.com).
   • Entering a full page link will only exclude that page (e.g., http://excludedsite.com/page.html). 
   • Protip: Add an exclusion for your proxy prefix so the link checker ignores any of your proxied URLs.
6. Click Save to add the exclusion.

Edit or delete exclusions

The Exclusions tab will show you all links and domains that are not checked by the link checker. Any items that are in your exclusions list will not appear in the link checker report unless they have been removed from this page. 

Admin and Regular-level account holders can view the Exclusions tab, but only Admins can make changes to the exclusions (adding/editing/removing exclusions).

1. Go to  Tools > Link Checker from the command bar.

2. Click on the Exclusions tab.
   1. Manually add new exclusions by clicking the  Add Item button.
   2. Use the Type column to filter the list by type.
      • Link labeled exclusions are items that were dismissed from the link checker report. 
      • Domain labeled exclusions are items (individual pages or full domains) that were added manually.
   3. Use the Title column to filter/search for exclusions by their title.
      • Link exclusions will display the title of the asset.
      • Domain exclusions will display the title that was set when it was added to the list.
   4. The URL column will show the URL that has been excluded.
   5. The Added by column will show you who added the exclusion.
   6. Click the Edit () icon for an exclusion to make a change to the title or URL of a link that was added manually.
      • Links sent to the exclusions list via the Dismiss option on the report cannot be edited.
   7. Click the Remove from exclusions list () icon to delete the exclusion.
      • Links that have been removed from the exclusions list will be checked by the link checker once again.

Text copied from Springshare Link Checker FAQ