TDX Knowledge: Check for Referring Links

Before archiving a knowledge base article you need to check for other TDX articles that link to it 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 Referring Links to Articles

Articles may be linked from within or outside of our it.umn.edu public website. They may also be linked to from internal knowledge base articles.

Take the following steps (in order) to look for article references:

All articles:

Published articles

All articles:

Step 1: Finding 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.
    Note for Published articles: If the article is published to the Technology Help website, there may be other TDX KB articles that improperly reference it using the it.umn.edu link instead of its TDX Article link. 
    • Rerun the report using the it.umn.edu link to find any improper references.

Step 2: Finding Links to an Article on the Tech Help website

Other than Knowledge Base articles, a published article may be linked to from other locations on the it.umn.edu website:

  • Self-Help Guides (SHG) 
  • Other it.umn.edu site pages

You can generate a list of links to a published article on it.umn.edu using a Google DataStudio report.

  1. Copy the public article link from the Technology Help website.
  2. Go to Internal links - it.umn.edu (z.umn.edu/itlinks).
    • Note: This table is updated approximately every 2 weeks. Search results may include references to Drupal pages where a link to the article has already been removed.
  3. Click the Destination drop-down menu. The menu expands revealing a search box and a list of links.
  4. Paste the URL into the type to search field. The list of URLs refreshes showing only the URL you entered in the search
  5. Mouse over the URL and click on the ONLY button that is revealed. The report runs and results are returned. Only links to it.umn.edu Drupal pages will appear.
    Destination search field with URL; URL discovered; Only button highlighted
  6. Optional: Click the Source column heading to sort the list.
    Internal Links | it.umn.edu report search results showing destination, links, source columns
  7. Keep the report open so you can copy the source link(s).
    • Fill out a OIT-Service Lifecycle Support request form (z.umn.edu/makeITuserfriendly) as follows:
      1. Choose the type of help required: Check the box under Create or edit content about services (non self-help).
      2. Choose the reason for the request: Check the box for Maintaining/refreshing content for a service or technology. 
      3. Additional Information text box:
        1. Explain the reason for the request. For example, the article in question needs to be archived.
        2. Provide the title of the article and the link.
        3. Paste the links of the Drupal page(s) listed in the report.
      4. Click Request. A confirmation of your request will be emailed to you and someone will be tasked to do the work and communicate with you.
  8. Continue with Step 3 below.

Step 3: Finding Links to an Article from Sites External to it.umn.edu

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. 

Final Validation

Additional Resources

TDX ID
2620