TDX Knowledge: Check for Referring Links

Before archiving a knowledge base article you need to check for other TDX articles that link to it and either remove those links or update them to avoid breaking those links. If the article is published to the Technology Help website (it.umn.edu), you will also need to check for links outside of TDX.

Checking for Referring Links

Take the following steps to look for article references:

Finding TDX Links to an Article in TDX

You can easily generate a report of all articles linked to another article. The resulting report will include the Group that owns any linked articles which makes it easy to figure out who to notify about the pending change. You may find links to both published and internal articles. 

  1. Go to the Editors: Check KB Article Links report. The report opens with a Body like text box pre-populated with the text ArticleDet?ID=3095.
    Report with pre-populated Body like field. The article ID number is highlighted.
     
  2. Replace the pre-populated Article ID number with the one for the article you are checking links for.
  3. Click Run Report. A list of linked articles appears if there are any.
    Example of report after it has been run.
     
  4. If you can edit the articles that contain links to the article being retired, update or remove the links. If you cannot edit the articles, notify the article owners so they can make the needed edits.

Finding TDX Links to an Article on the Technology Help Website

If the article is restricted to University members, a link to the TDX article may have been intentionally added to the Technology Help website Search results to make the article easier for University members to find. 

  1. Go to the Technology Help website.
  2. Enter the Article IDd in the Search field and press Enter/return.
  3. A list of linked articles will appear.
    Example of the technology help website with the locations in steps 1 2 and 3 highlighted
     
  4. If any links are found open an OIT Digital Content and Communications operational ticket to let them know the article is being retired

Finding Technology Help Website Links to an Article in TDX

If the article is published to the Technology Help website, there may be other TDX KB articles that improperly reference the article using the it.umn.edu link instead of its TDX Article link. You can easily find these references by running a report in TDX. .

  1. Go to the Editors: Check KB Article Links report. The report opens with a Body like text box pre-populated with the text ArticleDet?ID=3095.
    Report with pre-populated Body like field. The article ID number is highlighted.
  2. Replace the pre-populated Article ID number with the it.umn.edu link for the article you are checking links for.
  3. Click Run Report. A list of linked articles appears if there are any.
    Example of report after it has been run.
     
  4. If you can edit the articles that contain it.umn.edu links to the article being retired, update or remove the links. If you cannot edit the articles, notify the article owners so they can make the needed edits.

Finding Technology Help Website Links to an Article on the Technology Help Website 

Other than Knowledge Base articles, a published article may be linked to from other locations on the Technology Help website:

  • Self-Help Guides (SHG) 
  • Other website pages

You can generate a list of links to a published article on the Technology Help website using a Google LookerStudio report.

  1. Copy the public article link from the Technology Help website.
    • Example: https://it.umn.edu/services-technologies/how-tos/canvas-overview-google-drive
  2. Go to IT@UMN Link Report  (z.umn.edu/itlinks).
    • Note: This table is updated approximately every 4 weeks. Search results may include references to Drupal pages where a link to the article has already been removed.
  3. In the destination menu, enter in the article link into the Enter a value search field and press Enter/return.
    • Note: If the Destination list is empty, there are no pages on the Technology Help website that link to your article. 
  4. (Optional): Click the Source column heading to sort the list.
    Internal Links | it.umn.edu report search results showing destination, links, source columns
  5. Keep the report open so you can copy the source link(s). Review the results to check if there are any non-KB links. KB links are the how-to pages (it.umn.edu/services-technologies/how-to) and you accounted for those in other sections of this article. 

Finding Links to an Article from Sites External to Technology Help Website and TDX

An article may also be linked to from other public locations, such as:

  • Other UMN pages, e.g., a college, departmental, or another system campus website
  • PDFs or non-web based documentation
  • Non-UMN pages

Note: You can search the web to find links to the article from external locations but the chances of useful results are rare. Do NOT spend a lot of time and effort attempting to find links external to our it.umn.edu site.

  • If you find any links from external sites, contact the appropriate Department, College, or unit. 

If you have many URLs to check (10 or more), you can fill out a request to run a bulk link report. Fill out the OIT Digital Content and Communications Request

Additional Resources

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