TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:validation and verification testing for HTML help From:Brian Martin <martin -at- SODALIA -dot- IT> Date:Tue, 11 Aug 1998 17:11:18 +0200
I'd be curious to know what people are doing for validation and
verification testing of HTML help.
We have identified the following process:
1. Check for broken links using web tool (Front Page).
2. Verify conceptual accuracy of Help content using "walkthrough"
process.
3. Verify Help link accuracy through online testing.
For step 3, are there any tools that would would be able to help us
verify the accuracy of links?
Not broken isn't good enough.
Is anything less than 100 percent link accuracy acceptable? If so, what
are your criteria?
We have more than 3000 links. We could probably test all of them
manually in about a week. However, if there were a way to create a table
of the files and their link text, link paths, and link targets, perhaps
we could scan it more quickly and avoid the process of actually tracing
each link online.
Do you use a similar or different process than that roughly described in
steps 1 to 3?
Just to be clear, we aren't using traditional "Help" tools for Windows
because this needs to be cross platform for UNIX and Windows.)
Thanks in advance for your ideas. I'll organize responses and repost a
digest if needed.