Advanced Site Maintenance

Open Berkeley includes a set of tools that will help you maintain your site's quality after it is finished and launched. These tools are available to users with the Site Builder role.

The "Reports" Page

Select "Reports" from the black admin menu to see the "Reports" page (http://[yoursite]/admin/reports).

Screenshot of the admin menu with the Reports option highlighted

The "Reports" page contains the following helpful information:

  • Broken links: If any broken links have been found on your site, they will be listed here (see below).
  • Top 'access denied' errors: If any 'access denied' errors have been found on your site, they will be listed here.
  • Top 'page not found' errors: If any 'page not found' errors have been found on your site, they will be listed here, and can be fixed using URL redirects (see below).
  • Top search phrases: View the most popular search phrases on your site.

Find and fix broken (external) links

If any external links on your website become broken (if the site has been removed, etc.), the list of links will show up in "Broken links" under "Reports" in the black admin menu (http://[yoursite]/admin/reports/linkchecker). This list will display the broken link, and there will be an option to edit the page (or pages) containing the link.

Find and fix "Page not found" errors

"Page not found" errors (also known as 404 errors, from the error code sent by the web server) occur when a browser requests a resource - a Drupal page or an uploaded file - and the web server doesn't find anything at that location. URLs on sites often change due to migration, name changes, file deletions, etc. Out-of-date search engine indexes, old bookmarks, or old links may be sending visitors to the wrong locations for your content.

Not all "Page not found" errors need to be redirected. If they were the result of intrusion attempts or random typing in the address bar, you can leave them alone.

Select "Top 'page not found' errors" under "Reports" from the black admin menu (http://[yoursite]/admin/reports/page-not-found) to see the list. The report lists all 'page not found' errors. By default, URLs with the most errors are at the top. If the URL requested used to, or should, point to existing information on your site, you can fix it with a redirect. To fix an error, click the "Add Redirect" link next to the applicable broken link.

Please note, if you've already created a redirect for a URL, that URL will not show up on this page even though it shows up on the report on the previous page.

In the To field, add the URL that these requests should be redirected to. You can put in a path on your current site, an external URL, or <front> to redirect to the front page. Click "Save" when you're done.

Future requests for the URL will be sent to the destination you specified.

Site Backups

Open Berkeley sites that are managed by Web Platform Services are backed up every night on Pantheon (our external server). Typically, it should not be necessary to restore a backup from Pantheon; however, in exceptional cases, contact Web Platform Services (web-platform@berkeley.edu) if you believe that it's necessary to restore a Pantheon backup. You will lose any work created since the last backup (usually just that day's work). 

Email web-platform@berkeley.edu with any questions about backups. 

Test Responsiveness

Open Berkeley sites are "responsive," which means that the layout of an Open Berkeley site will respond accordingly for optimal viewing across a range of devices (mobile, tablet, etc.). To do a quick test to see how your site will respond on mobile devices, try resizing your browser window. For additional responsive web tools, see Device and Browser Testing.

Configure 403/404 pages

If desired, you can redirect site visitors to specific pages in the event that they encounter a 403 ("access denied") or 404 ("not found") error. Otherwise, site visitors who find themselves on a 403 or 404 page will see a generic "access denied" or "not found" page instead.

To configure specific 403/404 pages, you will first need to create a content item (or more than one, if you want separate content items for each error page). See Create New Content in the Editors Guide.

Then, from your Dashboard (admin/dashboard), navigate to "Site Information" under "Other Administration".

Then, add the internal path (everything after the .edu/, or the node number) in the appropriate fields in the "Error Pages" section.