W-Shadow.com

The next major update of the Broken Link Checker plugin is almost done. I’ve added several new, oft-requested features and rewritten most existing functions to make them more secure and faster. However, as anyone who has at least dabbled in programming will know, lots of code changes equals lots of potential for new bugs. So lets try something I don’t usually do : a public beta.

What the beta?

If you’re feeling sufficiently adventurous and/or want to see some of the new features (listed further below) before the majority of users, here’s what to do :

1. Download broken-link-checker-beta.zip (beta’s over, the final version is out).
2. Make a backup of your blog.
3. Install it as any other plugin. You can do a “fresh” install or replace an older version of BLC. The new version is compatible with WP 2.7 and up.
4. Play around. Check the feature list for ideas. You can also view various debugging info using the FirePHP extension.
5. Report back. Captivating stories of horror and/or excitement are expected. A simple “It works!” or “It fails miserably on [server configuration]!” are also appreciated.

I’m particularly interested in how the plugin performs in PHP 4 and MySQL 4. Sure, they’re both horribly outdated, but lots of people still run WordPress on PHP 4. Thus, it seems prudent to make sure BLC is compatible with those systems.

New Features

Yay, finally the good bits 🙂 I’m got going to post the full changelog now (that huge list is reserved for the final release announcement), so here are the highlights :

• Checking links in custom fields.
• Checking bookmarks AKA blogroll links.
• Redirects are detected and can be viewed through a new filter on the “Broken Links” page.
• There’s also a new filter that shows all links, valid or not, from all posts, pages, custom fields and the blogroll.
• Edit or remove any link from the plugin’s page. If a link/URL is present in multiple posts (or fields, or bookmarks), all instances will be edited or removed at once.
• Updated WP 2.7 style UI. For example, tables are support paging, action links pop up when you hover over a row, etc.

Timeframes

If everything goes well – i.e. there are no “omg this thing killed my dog!” yells – the “real” release will be available in less than two weeks.