Verify Universal Resource Locators (URLs)

The VERIFY Universal Resource Locators (URLs) option in Admin Corner allows you to verify URLs in records. This option appears in Admin Corner only if your library acquired URL Verification as a stand-alone product.

When this option is selected, the system asks whether a range of bibliographic records or a set of records in a pre-existing review file are to be checked:

 ----- URL Verification -----                    

          R > To enter a RANGE of Record Numbers
          B > To use a BOOLEAN search review FILE
          Q > QUIT
          Choose one (R,B,Q)

After an option has been selected, the system asks:

Verify 404 NOT FOUND responses twice? (y/n)

Answer 'y' to have the system repeat the verification test for any URLs that contain an IP name or address that cannot be found on the Internet (i.e., HTTP "404" errors). Note that this may slow the verification process, since it doubles the amount of time that the system tries to verify these URLs. The system then begins testing the URLs in the specified set of bibliographic records. As it proceeds, it displays the message TRYING CONNECTIONS PLEASE WAIT and offers an option to stop the process at any time.

When the system has finished verifying all the records, if there are any errors found, it displays a report like that shown below:

             URL Verification Report -- URL problems(09-26-99)          
                     Number of records verified: 36326

    b1017494    http://www.ala.ogg         -0003  Host not found
    b1009588    http:/www.ala.org          -0002  malformed URL
    b1009673    htp://www.amersci.edu      -0002  malformed URL
    b1017494    http://www.maths.bku.edu   -0014  Service Unavailable
    b1019432    http://nasa.mars.gov       -0001  Connection refused
    b1019783    http://www.masc.edu        -0003  Host not found

 P > PRINT                             S > STATISTICS
 Q > QUIT
 Choose one (P,Q,S)

For each invalid URL, the report displays the bibliographic record number, the URL itself, and an error code and message describing the problem.

Viewing a Statistical Summary

A statistical summary may be viewed by selecting the S > STATISTICS menu option. A sample summary is shown below:

         URL Verification Statistics -- URL problems(09-26-99)         

    ERROR                            TOTAL

    Host not found                      2
    malformed URL                       2
    Service Unavailable                 1
    Connection refused                  1

    TOTAL ERRORS                        6


 R > RETURN to previous screen
 Choose one (R)

Viewing the URL Verification Errors File

The system also writes any problems encountered while attempting to verify each URL to a system-generated file. You can view this file by copying it into a review file.