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Question

Unable to click some URLs in a weblink document

WebLink
Updated May 23, 2022
asked on May 23, 2022

Hello, we are on weblink 10.2.0.264 and are having issues with URLs on our pages. The document is created in word, with hyperlinks. That document is converted to pdf, and the hyperlinks still work. When we import to Laserfiche and generate the pages, only our fully typed URLs are clickable. It seems those are based off of the text file. I can change the various ways text extraction from the pdf occurs, but none of them translate to a successful hyperlink in Weblink.

Because downloading downloads a pdf export of the pages, and not the source pdf, this issue still exists on that pdf.

Do I need to change how we format our hyperlinks on documents for them to work in weblink? Anybody else have this issue?

Here is an example: http://www.ci.oswego.or.us/WebLink/DocView.aspx?id=2004222&dbid=0&repo=CityOfLakeOswego

Thanks for any input.

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Answer

SELECTED ANSWER
replied on May 23, 2022 • Show version history

I think it really depends on how the URLs are presented. I think if it has a "recognizable" URL format within the actual text then it should work under ideal circumstances, but if you have something like "CIick Here" with an underlying URL hidden beneath another layer that would be a different scenario.

As for the consistency thing I absolutely agree with that and in the past that was one of the reasons we generated pages for everything. With things like WebLink it is possible to use the internal viewer for formats like PDF so external applications and downloads are no longer necessary with the right settings.

I think the deal breaker for that approach is the requirement for storing as TIFF because native pages always take precedence in the WebLink document viewer even if you have a PDF attached to the entry.

That being the case, I think your solution will involve looking at the text on your documents and making sure there is a recognizable, and visible, URL on the page. Maybe do some testing to see exactly how much of the URL format is needed for a link to be recognized.

For example, does the formatting need to be https://www.laserfiche.com, https://laserfiche.com, www.laserfiche.com, or would a simple laserfiche.com be recognized.

(Note that I didn't manually set any of those as links. The Answers editor automatically recognized the first three, but not the last one)

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Replies

replied on May 23, 2022 • Show version history

I think the only way around this would be to change how you format the URLs.

The issue you're having isn't necessarily directly related to WebLink, it's that the full URL is needed in order for the text to be recognized as a hyperlink without the added functionality provided by formats like TIFF or PDF.

Word and PDF documents are much more complex so they can have links that display some text and have a different underlying URL, but a TIFF is just an image of the page.

The conversion from PDF to TIFF pages generates page images from the the visible page elements, and text can be extracted from the actual text on the page, but that wouldn't preserve the "underlying" attributes of more complex items.

I'd say it is worth considering whether or not you even need to generate pages. We generate pages when we need to annotate, add/remove pages, etc., but when we just want the document in Laserfiche we keep the PDF intact so bookmarks, hyperlinks, etc., remain intact.

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replied on May 23, 2022

Thank you for your reply! This all makes sense, and was what it had appeared, but I thought I had read that newer versions would handle URLs better. We will probably jsut change how we put links in documents. 

As for not generating pages, the issue is that some of our content gets pdfs and others not, but we need them all to display the same when the public accesse our documents. We received considerable pushback when things either opened other applications, appeared differently from one documen to another, or forced the person to do a download.  All of which is easy enough, but ultimately our constituency needs consistency. We are also required by law to have all documents stored as tiff for retention, so we have to generate pages.

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SELECTED ANSWER
replied on May 23, 2022 • Show version history

I think it really depends on how the URLs are presented. I think if it has a "recognizable" URL format within the actual text then it should work under ideal circumstances, but if you have something like "CIick Here" with an underlying URL hidden beneath another layer that would be a different scenario.

As for the consistency thing I absolutely agree with that and in the past that was one of the reasons we generated pages for everything. With things like WebLink it is possible to use the internal viewer for formats like PDF so external applications and downloads are no longer necessary with the right settings.

I think the deal breaker for that approach is the requirement for storing as TIFF because native pages always take precedence in the WebLink document viewer even if you have a PDF attached to the entry.

That being the case, I think your solution will involve looking at the text on your documents and making sure there is a recognizable, and visible, URL on the page. Maybe do some testing to see exactly how much of the URL format is needed for a link to be recognized.

For example, does the formatting need to be https://www.laserfiche.com, https://laserfiche.com, www.laserfiche.com, or would a simple laserfiche.com be recognized.

(Note that I didn't manually set any of those as links. The Answers editor automatically recognized the first three, but not the last one)

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replied on May 23, 2022

Full text links is probably the way we will go. It looks a bit clunky, but has better success.  Thank you for your time!

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