Watchfire Linkbot Developer Edition 6.0 What's Under the Hood Jim Fox
Fire up the program and you are greeted with a standard Windows interface featuring a Menu Bar on top with a Tool Bar directly beneath that. Hover the mouse over any tool and a tool tip will appear to identify it. The Tool Bars and icons can also be arranged and customized to suit individual needs. Even create custom Tool Bars containing the filters that you use most frequently.
Use Linkbot to scan and analyze a website, and it will identify any problems and provide suggestions on improvements to consider. Performing a scan is a simple matter of entering a URL into the URL Field and pressing Enter. Results of the scan are displayed in the Left and Right Panes of the interface. The Left Pane has a dropdown menu offering a choice of many views; the Right Pane has tabs used in conjunction with a Left Pane selection. Tabs included are:
Children - displays the URLs contained within the web page selected in the left hand pane along with key statistics and properties of those URLs.
Parents - displays the URLs that reference the web page or file selected in the left hand pane along with their key statistics and properties.
HTML - displays the HTML code if an HTML file is selected in the left hand pane.
Browse - displays the URL selected in the Left Pane as it appears in a Web browser. Internet Explorer must be installed for this feature to work.
Properties - Summarizes the properties or statistics of the URL selected in the Left Pane.
Site Map - Graphical representation of the site with three-dimensional towers.
Reports - Invokes the Reports Interface for the selected web site.
A set of keyboard shortcuts provide direct access to several key features. These are nice, although somewhat limited in number. It would be better if this feature were expanded or if the user had the ability to assign custom keyboard shortcuts.
The Reports Interface is the true meat of this program. After a scan is completed, the results are displayed in the Reports Interface, broken down into several key areas:
Summary - The main strengths and weaknesses of the web site, including a list of recommended modifications or improvements. A Site Quality Rating shows how the site ranks with others in the industry.
Errors - Problems found on the site including broken links, broken anchors and problem pages.
Usability - Pages that may impede navigation through the site such as those that are slow loading or are too many clicks away from the front page.
Maintenance - A set of reports to assist in the maintenance of the site.
