My Whatever Does Not Link

Creating: 2.23 Fix Links Not Working

This page reviews the power of linking from web pages and the big four mistakes made with links on web pages. It then expands in some detail on the opportunities and problems in using links in web pages. A bibliography is included.

To surf the web requires surf. That is, someone must make and link the information that makes up the web surf. Any computer file type for any computer application can be linked to a web page. This is a very powerful concept for those responsible for distributing information to others. The procedure is always the same. Sometimes web surfers wipe out or crash (favorite wipeout photo; audio to play of WipeOut music). Unlike surfing real waves, with web pages, it is seldom the surfer's fault when they crash while cruising the web pages you created. As with all procedures, sometimes links are not set up correctly. If your "whatever" does not link, you can fix the surf of your own web pages.

It is important to note that web browsers such as Safari, Firefox, Netscape and Internet Explorer only know how to deal with a very limited set of file types. When a browser doesn't know how to display or manage a type of file and needs help, it responds by giving the user a choice of downloading and installing in the browser the special code that it needs or it provides options to Open the file or Save the file so that can be opened in other applications. In short, either the web browser can handle the link and display the data, or the web browser needs help from some other application to do so. These options and trouble-shooting for common link mistakes will be explored further.

Summary: The Big Four Link Mistakes

Though trouble-shooting for many web-link situations will be explored in greater detail in a moment, there are four common problems among beginners putting links on web pages. These problems appear over and over and over again among those that fail to watch out for them. Most often a link to a web page, pictures or other media, or other application file type does not work because:

The file name in the link address in the web page does not match the actual file name on your local or on your remote computer (web account space). Being off by just one letter or character is enough for the link to not work. The match must be exact. Solution. Change the link data or rename the file so that they match.
There are characters to the left of your file name that send the web server searching for the file in some place that it is not. Often the computer is trying to retrieve a file from the A drive when it should be looking in the web server account space. Solution. Delete characters to the left of your file name in the link.
The file names in the link are changed to match the file name on your local computer, but the web page with the properly fixed link has not been uploaded to your web site so the page does not display when someone is visiting your web site. Solution. Upload the file that is needed to make the link work.
You have saved your fixes and changes and/or uploaded the correct file but see the old data still displaying on your computer screen and the same problem continues. Every time you try the link, it does not work. In fact, everything is right but you do not know it. Solution. Click the Reload button in Netscape (Refresh in Explorer).

Sometimes, more information than this is needed and that will follow.

The Web Browser Can Handle It

Web browsers are designed to display text files. This includes files of the type .txt (which does not include hypertext markup code) and .htm or .html. These latter file types contain hypertext mark-up language (HTML) code within them. Web browsers are also programmed to automatically handle three types of image files, jpg, gif and png. That is it for working immediately with the file. If the link to one of these file types does not cause its display automatically as the web page opens, there are just a few basic reasons that it would not.

The most common error sometimes generates a statement from the web server of 404 or 404 error. This just means that the server cannot find the file called for by the link in the web page. There are several possible solutions.

Often the file has not been uploaded to the web server account. The first step is to use an FTP client (e.g., WS_FTP or Fetch) and see if the file has been uploaded. If not, the solution is to use the same FTP client and upload it.
The spelling of the file name may simply not be read by the server. That is the user puts odd characters in the file name such as *,$, #, ! or puts spaces in the file name and the web server either is programmed to not work with those characters or uses them in some reserved special purpose way that does not involve transmitting the requested web page. Do not put spaces in file names!
A very common problem with a link not working is that there is no file name match. The file name in the link is not spelled exactly the same as the name of the file that should be connected. Close does not count. Often the difference is just one character. With some web servers, even the upper and lower case must match.
Often the web page composer has checked the link and it works. Then someone else reports that it does not work. This situation occurs when the web page composer check the links on their local computer, but does not check those some web pages from their web server account. The solution is for the web page composer to upload the file with the latest changes.
Did the link actually send it looking for the file in the web server account or is it being sent to look for the file on a local drive such as the A drive or C drive of the user's computer? Sometimes web editors think that when you choose a file from your local file folder that this absolute location should always be used in the future. What is needed is a relative link that will look for the file in its online location. Fixing this problem means using the web page editor to check to see that no extra characters are to the left of the actual file name in the link.
The data in the file is corrupted, messed up, incomplete. How would you know? You use your FTP client (e.g., WS_FTP, Fetch) and see that the file is present in your web account, that all other possible problems have been eliminated and that its file size is different than what is on your local drive (though sometimes the file size is the same and still corrupted in some way). Sometimes the file size is even zero! The solution is to reload the file. However, before reloading, display it from the local drive to determine that all is well with it and then reload to your web account.
You use a folder within your web account space. It is perfectly OK to have folders within folders within folders, but accessing files within them must be done correctly. When a web server must go looking for a linked file, it ALWAYS first looks inside the container of the web page that called it. That is, if the file called index.html has a link to a file called news.html, it will look for the file called news.html inside the same folder in which index.html is located. In order for the server to find the file located in some other folder, it must be given explicit directions on how to get there. If a file is located in the folder reports, then in the link address must include the folder name or folder names. A link from the file index.html to the file weather.html which is located in the January folder which is in the the Report folder would look like this: Reports/January/weather.html. On the other hand, if a file in a folder needs to link to a file outside its own folder, it must use the ../ characters for each folder it must look beyond. Using the same files and folders just mentioned can be used again. If the file weather.html needs a link back to index.html, since weather is buried 2 folders deep, that link would look like this ../../index.html.

The Web Browser Needs Help

The incredible power of the web comes from its ability to link to any type of computer file, not just HTML files. When the browser does not know what do to with a file type, it must pass the decision about what to do next to the reader of the web page, that is the current user. The most accurate summary of the choices is that the browser has two options, to either modify the browser's own computer code to deal with something new (a plug-in) or to get a different application to handle it. This can also be thought of as three options, add a plug-in to the browser code, use the Open or Save commands which lead to the use of some other application.

Plug-ins: Web Browser Extensions

Adding to the browser code is the most common need when dealing with different kinds of media. If files for media such as music, video, animation, 360 degree panoramas, etc. do not display, a choice is often given for where to go to download and install a plug-in. A plug-in is an extension to the browser's computer code. Many of these extensions are so common that the browser companies have been including them with the browser download. Until special code for the playing of media is available, this file being linked will not work. In rarer cases, no web site address or even hint is given as to how to get the right plug-in. This is bad web design that leaves the user wandering cyberspace using a search engine in hopes of finding the needed plug-in.

Open-Save: Need Different Application

Any file type can be linked to a web page and the browser has procedures for dealing with files that it cannot display by itself. This could include files from word processing, database, spreadsheet or any other type of application. Any of the above reasons for a link not working can also apply to these non-web page file types. A browser responds with a choice to Open or Save the file when it does not know how to display the information in a given type of file.

Open. The open command does not mean that the browser really knows how to open it. It just means that it is willing to try. The open command assumes that the web page reader has the application needed on the client (local) computer where they are sitting. It also assumes that defaults are set to work with a file type or the user has set the defaults in their web browser to recognizing the file type extensions of the linked file. When the open command is used, the browser looks in its default settings and determines which application it should run on the local computer. For example, if using Internet Explorer, it has already been trained to recognize the .doc format and will try to start up Microsoft Word and to recognize the .xls format and try to start up Excel. It can only do this if these applications are actually on the local computer.

The user can set the defaults on any computer to allow the open command to get the needed application if it is available. For example, when the .mdb extension is seen, the open command would go and find the Access database application and then download open the database file that has been linked. Every browser has an options or preference setting that allows these changes to be made. Consult with your local technical support staff on the procedures for the version of the browser that you are using. If this option does not work automatically, use the save option instead.

Save. The save option moves the file that has been linked to the user's computer. A choice is given as to where to place the file, with the user being able to designate the desktop or any folder at any level of folders. It is the user's responsibility to deal with opening this file. Sometimes a downloaded file can be clicked on and even though the application is on the computer, it will not find it. The solution is to start up the application, then have the application open up the file. For example, if clicking on a downloaded Access database file does not automatically find the database and display the data in the file, do the reverse. That is, start up the Access database program, click its folder symbol or click File in the menu bar and then the Open command. Find the file and double click to open it. If it does not open properly it can also mean that the file is corrupted or was created by a newer version of the application and may not be readable by the older version on the given computer.

For further help, visit the technical support staff or student technology assistance center at your institution, visit the additional links in the left blue column or explore some of the resources provided in the bibliography below.

Bibliography

Brains.

STAC: Student Technology Assistance Center. Hunter Library, Western Carolina University. Don't just read their web site. Go visit them! Call them! Email 'em!

Bookshelves.

Callahan, Evan. (2001). Troubleshooting Your Web Page. Microsoft Press. ISBN: 0735611645. Amazon.com price of $13.99.

Millhollon, Mary & Castrina, Jeff (2001). Easy Web Page Creation. Microsoft Press. ISBN: 0735611874. Amazon.com price of $12.00.

Smith, Bud, Bebak, Arthur. (2002). Creating Web Pages for Dummies, 6th Edition. For Dummies Publisher. ISBN: 0764516434. Amazon.com price of $17.49.

McFedries, Paul. (2002). The Complete Idiot's Guide to Creating a Web Page, 5th Edition. Alpha Books. ISBN: 002864316X. Amazon.com price of $17.47.

Drives.

Schaapveld, Erica. Troubleshooting broken links. Available on March 25, 2004 at http://www.4teachers.org/techalong/links/

Olson, Kathy. Troubleshooting your Web page. Available on March 24, 2004 at http://www.lehigh.edu/~kko2/erp/troubleshoot.html

Leshinsky, Milana. Web Design Troubleshooting Guide. Available on March 21, 2004 at http://www.thecryptmag.com/Online/27/WebDesignTrouble.html

[Version 1.30.2007.] [ Top | Pageauthor Houghton@wcu.edu]