Which are the essential tools for maintaining a html web site?

[xyZed]

I've realised a link checker is pretty essential, but are there other
essential tools for maintaining a html web site? Also, I would be very
grateful if I could be recommended an industry standard or accepted
link checker. There are a ridiculous amount available from freeware to
"professional" and I can't trust the sites own spiel.

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[xyZed]

There is circumstantial evidence that on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 09:38:39

› I would be very grateful if I could be recommended an industry standard or accepted
› link checker.

Would I be right in thinking that some link checkers just check that a
link actually goes somewhere and better ones can detect if the page
linked to has changed in any way? The latter I would think is
essential.

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[Alan Cole]

I've realised a link checker is pretty essential, but are there other
essential tools for maintaining a html web site? Also, I would be very
grateful if I could be recommended an industry standard or accepted
link checker. There are a ridiculous amount available from freeware to
"professional" and I can't trust the sites own spiel.

I'd say the only ESSENTIAL tools are:

A text editor to build the pages,
A ftp program to upload the pages,
A web browser to test the pages,

Other nearly essential tools for me are:
A graphics editor to build and optimise graphical elements
Lots more web-browsers to fully test the pages

There are then numerous useful online tools that are nice but by no
means essential such as:
Link checkers (can't say I've really used these)
HTML validators
CSS validators
Accessibility testers
and so on.

Probably my favourite development tool that is non-essential (although I
couldn't live without it now) is the web-developer plug-in for Firefox
which contains all of the above non-essential tools and much much more.

Al.

 

[Adrienne Boswell]

I've realised a link checker is pretty essential, but are there other
essential tools for maintaining a html web site? Also, I would be very
grateful if I could be recommended an industry standard or accepted
link checker. There are a ridiculous amount available from freeware to
"professional" and I can't trust the sites own spiel.

I like the checker at W3 <http://validator.w3.org/checklink>, and Xenu is
also very good <http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html>. Both are free.

 

[Toby Inkster]

I've realised a link checker is pretty essential, but are there other
essential tools for maintaining a html web site?

I rarely find I need anything more than:

- The Opera Browser <http://www.opera.com/>
- W3-dev Menu <http://tobyinkster.co.uk/opera>
- Nedit, for editing <http://www.nedit.org/>
- nano, for more editing <http://www.nano-editor.org/>
- tcsh, for file management <http://www.tcsh.org/>

 

[Bob]

I'd say the only ESSENTIAL tools are:

A text editor to build the pages,
A ftp program to upload the pages,
A web browser to test the pages,

Other nearly essential tools for me are:
A graphics editor to build and optimise graphical elements
Lots more web-browsers to fully test the pages

There are then numerous useful online tools that are nice but by no
means essential such as:
Link checkers (can't say I've really used these)
HTML validators
CSS validators
Accessibility testers
and so on.

Probably my favourite development tool that is non-essential (although I
couldn't live without it now) is the web-developer plug-in for Firefox
which contains all of the above non-essential tools and much much more.

Al.

Is that an extension? If so, url?

 

[xyZed]

There is circumstantial evidence that on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:20:22
_______________________________________________________

› I'd say the only ESSENTIAL tools are:

I should have added that I make my living from the site, so I assume
this makes some difference. Thanks for the replies so far ..

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Free washing machine help and advice.

www.washerhelp.co.uk

www.xyzed.co.uk/newsgroups/top-posting.html

 

[Alan Cole]

There is circumstantial evidence that on Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:20:22
_______________________________________________________



I should have added that I make my living from the site, so I assume
this makes some difference. Thanks for the replies so far ..

None whatsoever

Al.

 

[xyZed]

There is circumstantial evidence that on Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:19:36
_______________________________________________________

› None whatsoever

I think I know what you mean, and fundamentally I probably agree, but
to me, broken links in a site you rely on for your only source of
income cost money and they need automated checking, especially
affiliate links . Broken links on my personal site where I have my
reviews, poems etc are not critical at all and merely inconvenient.

I don't monitor where traffic is coming from on my personal site
either because it's just my home site, which I hope some people will
find and enjoy but if no one ever visited it I would be merely
disappointed and not financially ruined.

Monitoring what visitors do, where they came from, how long they stay
etc on my home site would be purely out of interest on my home site
but on a business site it's critical information to be acted on.
Position on search engines etc, again is purely academic unless it's a
business (unless you are taking your personal non profit site pretty
seriously - which is fair enough)

I don't mean to imply that some people don't take their sites
extremely seriously unless they make money but I can't see how a
business site needs no more tools than a hobbyist site.

Can a link checker check javascript affiliate links btw? And can it
also inform if the page linked to has changed? I keep finding that
even affiliate links suddenly stop working because some idiot has
moved the page I linked to.




--

Free washing machine help and advice.

www.washerhelp.co.uk

www.xyzed.co.uk/newsgroups/top-posting.html

 

[Alan Cole]

There is circumstantial evidence that on Wed, 01 Mar 2006 08:19:36
_______________________________________________________



I think I know what you mean, and fundamentally I probably agree, but
to me, broken links in a site you rely on for your only source of
income cost money and they need automated checking, especially
affiliate links . Broken links on my personal site where I have my
reviews, poems etc are not critical at all and merely inconvenient.

I don't monitor where traffic is coming from on my personal site
either because it's just my home site, which I hope some people will
find and enjoy but if no one ever visited it I would be merely
disappointed and not financially ruined.

Monitoring what visitors do, where they came from, how long they stay
etc on my home site would be purely out of interest on my home site
but on a business site it's critical information to be acted on.
Position on search engines etc, again is purely academic unless it's a
business (unless you are taking your personal non profit site pretty
seriously - which is fair enough)

I don't mean to imply that some people don't take their sites
extremely seriously unless they make money but I can't see how a
business site needs no more tools than a hobbyist site.

Can a link checker check javascript affiliate links btw? And can it
also inform if the page linked to has changed? I keep finding that
even affiliate links suddenly stop working because some idiot has
moved the page I linked to.

If it is that important to you (and I can understand why such a thing
would be) then the only surefire way to make sure that your links are
actually pointing to what you intend them to point to is to check them
manually yourself... I'm sure there is an application that will monitor
outbound links for you and tell you if the page they link to has been
modified, but it will be up to you to manually check if the
modifications should result in you removing the link from your site or
not.

I may have been a little pedantic, but a link-checker isn't an
'Essential Tool' for maintaining a website (however critical the site)..
That doesn't of course mean that it might not be a very important tool
for you.

Al.

 

[Toby Inkster]

I'd say the only ESSENTIAL tools are:

A text editor to build the pages,
A ftp program to upload the pages,
A web browser to test the pages,

I haven't used an FTP program in *ages*.

Certainly not essential.

 

[josh]

Probably my favourite development tool that is non-essential (although I
couldn't live without it now) is the web-developer plug-in for Firefox
which contains all of the above non-essential tools and much much more.

This is just about my favorite thing right now too. You can get it from
here:

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=60&application=firefox