Author Topic: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue  (Read 3807 times)

Offline Sanctaphrax

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I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« on: December 20, 2016, 03:28:22 AM »
As most of you know, I've compiled various bits of fanwork into text documents that are available on this forum and on the wiki. Most of those documents are in my public folder, which Dropbox will be fiddling with in a few months. It's easy enough to avoid link-breakage, but only if I know where the links are.

I already know about, and will soon fix, the links in the first posts of the Resources board threads. Same goes for the Power, Stunt, Sponsored Magic and Item of Power pages on the wiki.

But I know I posted links elsewhere. I would appreciate being told where, so that I can keep the links functional. Even in an old dead thread, I'd like to keep the links working; I find broken links really annoying and don't want to inflict them on others.

If anyone else posted links to my public folder on this forum, let me know about that too. As moderator, I can edit other peoples' posts, and I think it's appropriate to fix links with that power.

Offline Taran

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2016, 02:01:09 PM »
That's tough.  Have you thought about following them backwards?   Putting the soon to be broken urls in the search and seeing what posts/threads come up?   I'm not sure it'd find embedded links though. 

It's probably a tedious way of doing it but it might be more thorough. 

Just a suggestion.  For my own part, I can't remember if I ever included any links in any of my posts.  I usually link to resources or posts on this board.

Edit: if it's helpful, I could offer to do some of that but you'd have to post the links you are trying to track down.  Not sure how much work that is. 
« Last Edit: December 20, 2016, 02:07:46 PM by Taran »


Offline Taran

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #3 on: December 21, 2016, 02:12:25 PM »
I quickly tried a few.  It is hitting embedded links, which is good.  When I have some time, I'll make a list.

You could also set this thread, or a new one as a place to report broken links.

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #4 on: December 21, 2016, 02:41:53 PM »
The links aren't scheduled to break for another few months, but I'll definitely put up a report thread when that time comes.

And thanks.

Offline Quantus

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #5 on: December 21, 2016, 03:08:49 PM »
So far just found this: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,21213.msg1249943.html#msg1249943

used a search of "/u/43356063" to try to get hits on any links to your dropbox account.  Im looking online for some kind of webcrawler tool that will seek out any links for a given domain.  Will let you know if I find anything. 

EDIT:  So, consensus online seems to be that Screaming Frog is the best tool for the job.  Downloaded it and it should work wonderfully, but for a small problem called Robot.txt, which is a file kept on the site root folder that blocks google-compliant programs from automatically crawling a site for this sort of thing.  If we can get Iago to give us access to an offline backup we should be able to disable it crawl the site that way in just a few seconds.  Otherwise it would take ~$180 to unlock the Full Version of Screaming Frog which can ignore the Robot.txt whitelist.

Found an freeware tool (Xenu) that seems to be working, if slow.  Ill let you know what I come up with.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2016, 07:00:02 PM by Quantus »
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Offline Quantus

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #6 on: December 22, 2016, 07:21:17 PM »
Success! 

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43356063/Sponsored%20Magic%20Master%20List.odt
Appears in:

(click to show/hide)


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43356063/Item%20of%20power%20list.docx
Appears in:
(click to show/hide)


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43356063/Homebrew%20Stunt%20List%20%28Revised%29.odt
Appears in:
(click to show/hide)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43356063/DFRPG%20stunts%20%28sorted%29.docx
Appears in:
(click to show/hide)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43356063/Custom%20Powers%20v2.docx
Appears in:


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/43356063/Custom%20Powers%20Master%20List%20%28V3%29.odt
Appears in:
(click to show/hide)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/39806406/CustomFateTokens.pdf
Appears in:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18790036/The%20Furies%20of%20Alera.docx
Appears in:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14683171/DFRPG_Char_Calc_Sheet/DFRPG_CharCalc_Spreadsheet.xls
Appears in:
(click to show/hide)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14683171/DFRPG_Char_Calc_Sheet/DFRPG_CharCalc_Spreadsheet.ods
Appears in:
(click to show/hide)


http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14681070/Sues_Names_Cheet_Sheet.pdf
Appears in:
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Offline Taran

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #7 on: December 22, 2016, 07:25:34 PM »
Holy Cow.   There's no way I would have been able to find all that.  Nice job Quantus. 

Does your web crawler have a find/replace function?   Sanctaphrax might want to use it. 

Offline Quantus

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #8 on: December 22, 2016, 07:28:37 PM »
Holy Cow.   There's no way I would have been able to find all that.  Nice job Quantus. 

Does your web crawler have a find/replace function?   Sanctaphrax might want to use it.
Not that I know of.  I think that would require actual editing/mod rights, and I havent found any way to get the crawler to login under a specific user account. 
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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #9 on: December 23, 2016, 03:43:55 AM »
Wow. Nicely done. Thanks, Quantus.

I'll get to fixing those, then.

I don't think I'll be needing a find/replace tool. There are a lot of repeats in those links, so it should be less work than it looks like.

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #10 on: December 24, 2016, 08:15:04 AM »
Alright, fixed the links. Let me know if you run into any problems with them.

Offline Quantus

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #11 on: December 27, 2016, 02:49:07 PM »
Any time, glad I could help.

Let me know if you find some other need of a list of all links on the forums.  It took most of a day for the crawler to compile, so it's not something that can be run at the drop of a hat, but might be useful again someday.   
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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #12 on: December 28, 2016, 04:10:05 AM »
I'll keep that in mind. Never know when a big list of links might come in handy.

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #13 on: March 21, 2017, 09:56:27 AM »
So, has anyone had any trouble?

The Dropbox change has come and gone; as far as I know all the links are fine, but I could've missed one.

Offline Taran

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Re: I could use some help with a Dropbox issue
« Reply #14 on: March 21, 2017, 11:41:55 PM »
I haven't tried any.  I'll click on a bunch and see.

Edit my edit.

I went into DFRPG Downloads:

Randomly clicked some links.  in the first spoiler tab (Tsunami's character spreadsheets don`t seem to work)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14683171/DFRPG_Char_Calc_Sheet/DFRPG_CharCalc_Spreadsheet.ods

is broken and so is the next link right after it.

Edit2:  btw, that resource page looks awesome.  Nice work.
« Last Edit: March 21, 2017, 11:54:58 PM by Taran »