Link Sweeper v1.2
(c) 1999 Jonathan Potter/Left Side Software

This software requires Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 or later to run.

This program is distributed under the Shareware concept. If you like and use this program,
please consider registering to support the development of this and other low-cost, user
friendly software. The registration fee is $US10 - please see http://www.lss.com.au/lss/order/register.htm
for more information. Registered users will be given priority when asking for technical support, and
will also receive notification of new releases of this and other software.

Note: The original version of Windows 95 had a bug in the Sockets library which could
cause gradual memory loss, leading to an eventual crash. If you are experiencing problems
of this nature, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/contents/Updates/W95Kernal32/
and download the patch from there.

1. Introduction

Most people who have been surfing the web for a while would have built up quite a
collection of favourite sites in their browser. Under Navigator, these are called
'bookmarks', and in Explorer they are called 'favorites'. What ever you call them,
how many of yours actually work any more? If you go back and try a bookmark that you
created several months ago, chances are that you'll find it has either moved to a
new location, or no longer exists at all. Link Sweeper is a utility that will
systematically test all your bookmarks and/or favorites, letting you clean up your
bookmark collection.


2. Installation

Link Sweeper requires no special installation procedures. Simply copy the LinkSweeper.exe
program to the folder you want to keep it in, and add it to your Start Menu. To
uninstall Link Sweeper, simply delete the program file.


3. The Main Window

The Link Sweeper main window may look complicated, but it is actually very simple to
operate. The four buttons in the top-left corner control the operation of the program. The
display area immediately to the right of the buttons presents general information,
including an on-going log of the cleaning operation. The list view in the middle of the
window shows you what each thread is currently doing (more about threads later), and the
display area at the bottom shows a log of all the links that were found to be not working.


4. Settings

The first time you run Link Sweeper, the Settings dialog will open automatically. After
that, you can click the Settings button on the main window to open it.
The available options are:

	Clean Navigator Bookmarks

	Use this option to control whether Netscape Navigator Bookmarks are cleaned.
	If you have Netscape installed on your computer, this option will be turned on
	by default. The Location field is used to specify where to find the Netscape
	Bookmark file.

	Clean Explorer Favorites

	Use this option to control whether Internet Explorer Favorites are cleaned.
	If you have Explorer installed on your computer, this option will be turned on
	by default. The Location field is used to specify where to find the Favorites
	directory.

	Synchronise Favorites and Bookmarks

	If this option is enabled, and you are cleaning both Bookmarks and Favorites,
	then the contents of both your bookmarks file and favorites directory will be
	synchronised after the cleaning operation is performed. This option is useful
	if you regularly use both Navigator and Explorer, and find your
	bookmarks/favorites falling out of sync. Please note that this function is only
	available in the registered version.

	Sort Bookmarks (Separators will be lost)

	Use this option to sort your Netscape Bookmarks alphabetically. Please note
	that this will cause any separator bars you have in your bookmarks menu to be lost.

	Only check links older than X days

	This option is useful if you want to run Link Sweeper regularly. The chances
	that a link that you have accessed recently will suddenly stop working are small -
	it is more often links that you have not used for a month or so that you find
	are broken. This option instructs Link Sweeper to only check links that you
	have not accessed for more than a given number of days (the default is 30 days).
	When Link Sweeper itself checks a link, it updates that link's last-access date,
	and so will also not check links that Link Sweeper itself has been to within
	the given time.

	You can also use this option to disable the link checking process altogether,
	and simply use Link Sweeper to sort or synchronise your Bookmarks. For
	example, you might want to sort your bookmarks fairly often, but not want to
	sit through the checking/cleaning process every single time. In this case,
	you would set the number of days to a very high number (eg, 5000). Link Sweeper
	would then not actually check any links (unless any were actually older than
	5000 days), but the sorting/synchronising would still take place.

	Tread Forbidden (403) as Not Found

	Link Sweeper uses the result code returned by the web server to determine
	whether a link works or not. Result code 403 does not specifically mean the
	page does not exist, but often that is the reason. Using this option will cause
	Link Sweeper to tread result code 403 (forbidden) as if it was a result 404
	(not found).

	If a link no longer works,

	These options let you choose what happens to links that do not work
	(because the page was not found, because the host couldn't be found, or
	because the server returned code 403). 'Ask what to do with it' is the default
	option, and will let you choose what to do with the link at the end of the
	process. 'Delete it automatically' will delete the link with no input required
	by you. 'Shift it to the 'broken' folder' will move the link to a folder called
	'Broken Links' (this folder will be created automatically the first time it is
	used).

	If a page has been moved,

	These options let you choose what happens to links to pages that have been
	moved (this means that the page itself still works, but your link to it is
	wrong). 'Ask what to do with it' is the default option, and will let you
	choose what to do with the link at the end of the process.
	'Automatically update the link' will update the link with the new address
	automatically, with no input required by you.

	Connect through Proxy Server

	These options lets you configure your proxy settings. Link Sweeper will
	attempt to fill these fields in for you automatically, but as there is no
	system-defined way of configuring a proxy server, you should check these
	settings before attempting to use Link Sweeper. You should use the same
	settings here as you do in your web broswer. If 'Connect through Proxy
	Server' is turned off, Link Sweeper will establish a direct connection to
	each site. Your ISP may have disabled this functionality; if you find Link
	Sweeper can never make a connection to a remote site, you may need to turn
	the proxy on.

	Threads

	This lets you set the number of concurrent threads Link Sweeper will use to
	check your bookmarks. The more threads you use, the faster the operation will
	run. However, you will find that using more than a certain number of threads
	(depending on your system performance) will reduce the reliability of
	Link Sweeper. In testing we have found that most systems can support 20-30
	threads quite happily, but you might have to play around with this field to
	find the value that works best for you. Please note that the unregistered
	version does not support more than 2 threads.

	Timeout

	Use this value to configure the time Link Sweeper will wait for a reply from
	a remote web server before giving up. The default is 30 seconds.

	Retries

	Use this to configure the number of times Link Sweeper will attempt to
	connect to a remote web server before giving up. The default is 5 times.


5. Usage

Once you have configured Link Sweeper using the Settings dialog, click the Clean!
button on the main window to begin the cleaning operation. Link Sweeper will then
read your bookmarks and/or favorites, and then begin the checking process. Depending
on the number of links you have to check, and the number of threads you have selected,
this may take some time. The progress bar at the bottom of the main window will give
you an indication of the overall progress, and you can follow the progress of each
thread using the list view and log displays.

What happens at the end of the checking process depends on how you have configured Link
Sweeper. If you have set the 'If a link no longer works' and the 'If a page has been moved'
options to the automatic settings, Link Sweeper will perform the appropriate actions and
then save your bookmarks and/or favorites automatically. If you have configured
Link Sweeper to 'ask what to do with it' for either of the two settings, Link Sweeper
will open the Results dialog, which you can use to select what happens to each link.

The list view in the Results dialog displays a list of the links that did not work.
The name of each link appears in the 'Name' column. The 'Type' column indicates
whether the link was a bookmark (book), a favorite (fav) or both (if you have the
Sychronise option turned on). The 'Problem' column tells you what the problem with
the link was, and the 'Action' column lets you choose what will happen to the link.
The URL of the link is shown in the 'URL' column.

To change what happens to a link, click on the 'Action' column. The default action
for all links is 'Leave', which means nothing will happen to the link. For broken links,
clicking on the 'Action' column will cycle through the options 'Leave', 'Delete' and
'Shift'. 'Delete' means the link will be deleted, and 'Shift' means it will be shifted
into the 'Broken Links' folder. For pages that have moved, the only two options are
'Leave' and 'Update', which will update the link with the new address of the page.
To change the action for all links, use the buttons below the list.

You can also select the name of a link with the right mouse button to display the
context menu. The context menu allows you to select the action for the link, and also has
several other functions. 'Browser' lets you open the link in your default web browser.
'Rename' lets you change the name of the link. 'Copy URL' (and 'Copy New URL' for moved
pages) copies the URL of the link to the clipboard.

When you have selected what you want to do with all the bad links, click the Ok
button, and Link Sweeper will complete the cleaning process and save your bookmarks
and/or favorites back to disk.


6. Copyrights

Link Sweeper is (c) Copyright 1999 by Jonathan Potter, Left Side Software.
All Rights Reserved.
Netscape and Netscape Navigator are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation.
Internet Explorer is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Please note that while Link Sweeper has been tested thoroughly, no responsibility is
taken for any loss or damage that may result from the use of this program. We recommend
you make a backup copy of your bookmarks/favorites before running this program.


7. Release History

	v1.0	Mar 98	- First public release

	v1.1	Jun 98	- Link Sweeper would lose certain characters in the link
			  names for Netscape bookmarks (filtering them out is
			  necessary for Explorer favourites). It now only filters
			  when saving favourites.

	v1.2	Jan 99	- Link Sweeper was still losing some characters when
			  saving favourites (commas, etc), this is now fixed.

			- Fixed a problem which could cause a crash if you clicked
			  Browse to locate the Netscape bookmark file
