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If you manage a Web site's day-to-day operations, it is vital for you to have a clear picture of the site's overall structure and flow, track development changes, and monitor and repair broken hyperlinks. You can do all these tasks and more with the Visio Professional 2002 Web Site Map tools.

This article describes how to:

• Map the contents of your site
• Automatically check your site for errors
• Keep track of work done on your site

Map the contents of your site

Managing your site starts with analyzing its current state. When you map your site, you create an up-to-date, graphic representation of the site's structure and contents.

Each shape in the site map represents a link on your Web site, and each shape includes information about the link type and location. By right-clicking a shape, you can browse directly from the shape to its Web location.

To map your Web site

1. In Visio Professional, on the File menu, point to New, point to Web Diagram, and then click Web Site Map.
2. In the Generate Site Map dialog box, enter a site address for one of the following:
   • For an HTTP server, in the Address box, enter the address of the Web site that you want to map.
   • For a network server or a local hard disk, click Browse, go to the file you want at the root of your site map, and then click Open.

   Tip  You can achieve better results by entering a full path and file name rather than entering a path that assumes a default file name. For example, enter http://www.championzone.org/default.html rather than http://www.championzone.com.

3. Review the discovery settings for the maximum number of levels and number of links that will be discovered.
4. To change either limit, click Settings. On the Layout tab, click Entire web site, change the limits, and then click OK.

   Tip  You can also map just one level below an address. On the Layout tab, click One level, and then click OK.

5. Optional: Click Settings, and further customize your Web site discovery by doing any of the following:
   • To change the layout style of the Web site map to be generated, on the Layout tab, click Modify Layout.
   • On the Extensions tab, select the type of files (such as .doc, .jpg, or .exe) that you want to map.
   • On the Protocols tab, select the protocols (such as HTML, ftp or NNTP) that you want to map.
   • On the Attributes tab, select the HTML attributes (such as HREF, SRC, or CODE) that you want to search for links.
   • On the Advanced tab, select options that further refine your search criteria.
6. In the Generate Site Map dialog box, click OK.
7. To save the site map, on the File menu, click Save.

Automatically check your site for errors

Because the content on your site is only effective if users can get to it, keeping the links active and error-free is the most critical ongoing Web site management task.

When you map your site, Visio Professional follows each link within the parameters you've specified and tracks any errors it encounters. You can generate a report that lists broken links and associated errors.

Links with errors appear on the site map as shapes with red X's through them, so you can quickly get a sense of where the problems lie.

To create a report of links with errors on your site

1. In Visio Professional, open the site map for which you want to create an error report.
2. On the Web menu, point to Reports, and then click Shapes with hyperlink errors.

   Visio creates a report listing all the links that have hyperlink errors. The report is an HTML file and opens in the application that you have specified for HTML files.

3. Name and save the report.

   Tip  Your Web site and the Web site map are not dynamically linked; changing one does not automatically affect the other. After you fix a broken link on the Web site, you can update the site map by right-clicking the shape representing the broken link, and then clicking Refresh Hyperlink. The red X disappears.

Keep track of work done on your site

If you have several developers working on your site, tracking their work can quickly become a full-time task. Using the Web Site Map comparison report, you can compare two versions of your site to quantify the changes made over a given period of time. The report compares the two versions and generates a list of differences. It not only identifies the links that appear in only one of the maps, but also lists the following link changes in both maps:

• Error status
• File title
• File size
• File modification date

For example, suppose you want to quantify the work done on the site each week. Simply map the site at the start of the week and again at the end. Then compare the two maps to generate a report of the changes. You can also measure the report against a schedule of work planned for the week to see if your Web site project is on target.

To compare Web site maps

1. In Visio Professional, open the most recent map of your Web site.
2. On the Web menu, point to Reports, and then click Compare to previous document.
3. Browse to the Web site map you want to compare with, select the file, and then click Open.

   Visio compares the two maps and generates a report listing the differences. The report is an HTML file and is opened in the application that you have specified for HTML files.

4. Name and save the report.