eValid™ -- The Web Quality Suite Browser-Based Client-Side Functional Testing and Validation Page Timing/Tuning Transaction Monitoring. WebSite Spidering & Analysis and Realistic Server Loading. © Copyright 2007 by Software Research, Inc.

Introduction
eValid's WebSite eValidation Managed Services offering involves a variety of automated searches and checks. This page describes the main features of available reports and indicates how the report was obtained and/or how it can be modified by choosing different eValidation Service Control Panel settings. In addition to these objective reports there are also available a range of subjective reports and analyses -- in many cases based on and/or interpreted from the objective data described here.

1. Summary WebSite Scan Statistics. This page summarizes basic properties of the WebSite analyzed.
   Benefit/Payoff: You now know the overall statistics on your WebSite or sub-WebSite.

   Whole Site Analyses

2. Pages Visited. This is a list of all pages visited during the scan.
   Benefit/Payoff: This is the complete list of URLs visited in the eValid analysis process.

3. Onsite Pages Visited. This is a list of pages visited that were visited as part of the basic sub-WebSite being analyzed.
   Benefit/Payoff: This is the complete list of on-site URLs visited in the eValid analysis process.

4. Offsite Pages Visited. This is a list of pages visited that were not part of the basic sub-WebSite being analyzed. Whether a page shows here is a function of the settings of the base WebSite, the included WebSites, and whether you consider the home WebSite to be part of the WebSite under test.
   Benefit/Payoff: Are you sure you want all of these pages to be accessed?

5. Complete URLs Map. This table shows the complete list of visited URLs for the subject WebSite, including references for every URL of its child URLs. Each URL is available for viewing by clicking on it. See also the 3D-SiteMap.
   Benefit/Payoff: Study the structure and organization of your WebSite with this report.

6. Unique URLs Map. This table shows indentations for every URL on the WebSite and its children pages [if any]. However, each URL is shown only in the first instance where it was found. See also the 3D-SiteMap.
   Benefit/Payoff: Pages with too many children can be a warning sign, as can pages with too many external links, too many images. For each page, study the composition of the children.

7. Complete URLs List. This list includes the complete list of URLs on the WebSite in the order in which they were visited. See also the 3D-SiteMap.
   Benefit/Payoff: Shows the URLs in eValid search tree order. Look here for clues to bad connectivity.

8. Unique URLs List. This list includes every unique URL on the WebSite. See also the 3D-SiteMap.
   Benefit/Payoff: Shows the entire list of pages readable by users. Are you sure that you want your users to read every one of them? Are there some pages present in the list that should not be there?

9. Complete Link List. This list includes each link between URLs found on the site. This report can be sorted by parents or by children. See also the 3D-SiteMap.
   Benefit/Payoff: Shows the links in the site so you can make needed changes quickly and easily.

10. Unique Link List. This list includes each unique link between URLs found on the site. This report is a subset of the Complete Link List that shows only that there is a connection (one or more links) from a parent URL to a child URL. This report can be sorted by parents or by children. See also the 3D-SiteMap.
    Benefit/Payoff: Shows the links in the site so you can make needed changes quickly and easily.

11. 3D-SiteMap. This display is based on the full URLs map and indicates parent and child dependency throughout the mapped WebSite. The picture can be manipulated and annotated in a variety of ways.
    Benefit/Payoff: See the structure of the WebSite and learn how to better organize it.

12. Broken/Unavailable Pages. eValid understands that a link is broken when the server return code is 400 or greater. When a URL is referenced from a page and produces such a return code the eValid report shows both the URL referred to and the referencing page. Note that eValid's client side technology may reflect a page as broken/unavailable at the time the report was run, and this page may be made available later.
    Benefit/Payoff: Broken/unavailable pages annoy users, even when there is an Oops! page.

13. Onsite Broken/Unavailable Pages. eValid has found these links that are on the WebSite that return a server code of 400 or greater.
    Benefit/Payoff: Knowing broken/unavailable pages on your WebSite give you an immediate opportunity to correct problems.

14. Offsite Broken/Unavailable Pages. eValid has found these links that are not on the WebSite that return a server code of 400 or greater.
    Benefit/Payoff: Knowing pages your WebSite refers to that may not be available gives you the chance to prevent misleading users.

15. Oops! Pages. On sites that have self-generated "Oops!" replacement pages when there is a "page not found" error, this report lists all URLs that produce Oops! page rendering. Benefit/Payoff: Broken/unavailable pages annoy users, even when shown an Oops! page.

    Site Composition Analyses

16. Directory Tree. This reort shows the logical directory tree structure for all URLs on the site. Only directories that have one or more descendent URLs are shown. See also the 3D-SiteMap.
    Benefit/Payoff: Study how the site is organized in a hierarchical order and identify illogical and incorrect dependencies.

17. Link Depth Analysis. This report shows the distribution of URLs/pages as a function of link depth relative to the current analysis base URL.
    Benefit/Payoff: Learn the link expansion structure of the WebSite, to help identify overall complexity and control degree of difficulty of access to files.

18. File Suffix Statistics. Shows the total distribution of file suffixes that apply to this particular scan.
    Benefit/Payoff: Learn the distribution of types of files, identify rogue files and miss-named files.

19. Protocol Statistics. Shows the set of protocols encountered on the WebSite in this particular scan.
    Benefit/Payoff: Learn the types and relative frequence of protocols used on the WebSite.

20. Complete *CGI References. This list enumerates all specific references to *GGI.
    Benefit/Payoff: *CGI files are an indicator of pages that (typically) communicate information from the user to your server. You want to very careful that such pages are well understood.

21. Complete mailto: References. This list enumerates all specific references to mailto: in the HTML.
    Benefit/Payoff: Explicit email instances in your WebSite could be a problem if not well managed. While not necessarily wrong this report gives you visibility on what emails are accessible from the outside.

22. Complete *ftp References. This list enumerates all specific references to *ftp protocols.
    Benefit/Payoff: *ftp protocols are an indicator of pages that (typically) communicate information from the user to your server. You want to very careful that such pages are well understood.

23. Complete *file References. This list enumerates all specific references to *file protocols.
    Benefit/Payoff: *file protocols are an indicator of pages that (typically) communicate information from the user to your server. You want to very careful that such pages are well understood.

    Page Performance Properties

24. Slow Pages/URLs. These Pages or URLs load slower than the specified load times.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages or page components could download slowly due to size or due to server activity. In either case, slow is slow and users are likely to click away even if the problem is not on your WebSite.

25. Onsite Slow Pages/URLs. These onsite pages load slower than the specified load times.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages could download slowly due to size or due to server problems. This is a clear opportunity to repair your WebSite.

26. Offsite Slow Pages/URLs. These offsite pages load slower than the specified load times.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages could download slowly due to size or due to server activity. In either case, slow is slow and users are likely to click away. You may wish to not include such links.

27. Slow Page Components. These page components account are those for which the download time is more than a fixed percentage of the total download time for the page.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages could download slowly due to size of page components. Solution: reduce size of page components.

28. Large Pages. These pages are larger than the specified threshold page size in KB.
    Benefit/Payoff: Oversize pages probably load slowly, and may cause click-away if they are found too high on the WebSite access tree.

29. Large Images. Images listed here are those which have the specified suffix and which exceed the specified byte count.
    Benefit/Payoff: Large pages should be located away from the base of your WebSite.

30. Very Large Images. While sometimes important to the content of the site, images above a threshold size (e.g. 100 KB) probably are going to be a serious performance problem. Large images may need to be broken into parts.
    Benefit/Payoff: Users will not click away if they get pages quickly, conveniently, This report helps identify where to make changes to avoid problems.

31. Small Images. Very small images can either be good news or bad news. If there are too many very small images, e.g. less than 10B, this likely indicates a problem. The worst case is a 1-pixel image, which is used in some types of page instrumentation to keep track of page loads.
    Benefit/Payoff: Knowing about a problem is very important, and knowing about very-small images may alert you to a bigger problem.

32. Old Pages. These pages have a creation date older than the specified threshold creation date.
    Benefit/Payoff: Is the content of these pages supposed to be constant? Users want current information.

33. New Pages. This report lists all non-image pages (as defined by the specified acceptable non-image file suffixes) that are younger than the specified age.
    Benefit/Payoff: New pages (very young pages) may need to be studied for complete confidence in the WebSite.

34. Old Images. Images used in your WebSite may, by design, be very old, but in many instances, particularly when WebSites change a great deal, the existence of very old images may be a cause for concern.
    Benefit/Payoff: Knowing about over-age pages gives you the chance to review them and possibly make appropriate replacements.

35. New Images. This report lists all images (as defined by the specified acceptable image file suffixes) that are younger than the specified age. While not normally an error, being aware of when new images are added to the WebSite is an important factor in WebSite maintenance.
    Benefit/Payoff: When images are new they need to be inspected for correctness and appropriateness.

    Basic Page Composition Analysis

36. Summary Page Metrics. This report shows statistics for all pages that have metric values above the established thresholds. The table is dynamically sortable by clicking on the column title. It is the basis for certain auxiliary reports.
    Benefit/Payoff: Very complex, very large, pages may confuse users.

37. Excessive Link Count. This report identifies each page which has more than a user-specified total link count.
    Benefit/Payoff: While in some cases directory pages should exist that have a large link count, the use of such pages should be avoided in favor of distributed linking.

38. Excessive Text Volume. This reports identifies pages that have more than a specified total number of bytes of visible text.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages that present a too long body of visible text may prevent your user from finding the material wanted.

39. Excessive HTML Complexity. The pages identified in this report are those which have more than a specified number of HTML elements, e.g. tabs or table entries, etc.
    Benefit/Payoff: While complex page usually are not a problem, they could indicate a technical error on your WebSite. Also, too-complex pages are necessarily going to be difficult to navigate and/or to maintain.

40. Small Pages (Graphic). This report lists all image pages (as defined by the specified acceptable image file suffixes) that are smaller than the specified size.
    Benefit/Payoff: It's a good idea to make sure that very-small graphics are correct and appropriate.

41. Small Pages (Non-Graphic). This report lists all non-image pages (as defined by the specified acceptable non-image file suffixes) that are smaller than the specified size. A small non-graphic page may be an error.
    Benefit/Payoff: Very small non-graphic pages -- much smaller than the average size -- could signal a problem.

42. DOCTYPE Missing. The pages listed here do NOT have a DOCTYPE... specification.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages need to have DOCTYPE defined to work with the broadest range of browsers.

43. HEIGHT Specification Missing In IMG Tags. These pages have instances of <IMG... tags where there is no HEIGHT= text specified. Such IMG's could impose a response time penalty to the user.
    Benefit/Payoff: Specifying image dimensions are key to faster page rendering. Also, an incorrect dimension can skew the image.

44. WIDTH Specification Missing In IMG Tags. These pages have instances of <IMG... tags where there is no WIDTH= text specified. Such IMG's could impose a response time penalty to the user.
    Benefit/Payoff: Specifying image dimensions are key to faster page rendering. Also, an incorrect dimension can skew the image.

45. WIDTH Specification Missing In INPUT Tags. These pages have instances of <INPUT... tags where there is no WIDTH= text specified.
    Benefit/Payoff: Specifying input field dimensions are key to faster page rendering. Also, an incorrect dimension can skew the image.

46. HEIGHT Specification Missing In INPUT Tags. These pages have instances of <INPUT... tags where there is no HEIGHT= text specified.
    Benefit/Payoff: Specifying input field dimensions are key to faster page rendering. Also, an incorrect dimension can skew the image.

47. FORM Fields Pre-Defined. Pages in this report have FORM fields that have pre-defined values.
    Benefit/Payoff: Predefinition of FORM fields should be used sparingly because they create defaults for the user which may NOT be what the user wants.

48. METATAG Definition Missing. The pages shown in the report did not have any METATAG definition.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages without METATAGS will not fare well with search engines.

49. KEYWORD Definition Missing. The pages shown in the report did not have any KEYWORD definitions.
    Benefit/Payoff: You'll want to make sure there are KEYWORD descriptions in all of your topmost pages.

50. AUTHOR Definition Missing. The pages shown in the report did not have any AUTHOR definition.
    Benefit/Payoff: You'll want to make sure there are AUTHOR descriptions in all of your pages.

51. DESCRIPTION Missing. The pages shown in the report did not have any DESCRIPTION definition.
    Benefit/Payoff: You'll want to make sure there are DESCRIPTION passages in all pages.

52. TITLE Empty or Missing. The pages shown in the report either do not have a TITLE definition or it is empty (null string).
    Benefit/Payoff: You'll want to make sure there are non-empty TITLE fields in all pages.

53. Style Sheet Reference Missing. This report identifies pages on the WebSite that do NOT have reference to the standard [or any] stylesheet, i.e. a specific file or to any file that ends in .css.
    Benefit/Payoff: Most WebSites use style sheets to assure uniform, standard style and structure within the WebSite. This report alerts you to pages that fail to follow the standard.

    Advanced Page Composition Analyses

54. REDIRECTs Detected. These pages have REDIRECT in the HTML in some form. While not specifically a problem, these constructs are known to be trouble prone.
    Benefit/Payoff: Although not technically an error, redirects should be reserved ONLY for pages that have moved.

55. HIDDEN Fields Detected. This reports shows fields that have the HIDDEN attribute. Such pages may not be wrong and may or may not be appropriate for use in your WebSite.
    Benefit/Payoff: Some servers store temporary data in HIDDEN fields. While not necessarily an error, not knowing where hidden fields are can lead to WebSite instability.

56. Applets Detected. This report identifies pages which use Applets.
    Benefit/Payoff: Applets may represent a maintenance problem and it is important to know which pages on your WebSite employ applets.

57. FLASH Objects Detected. This report identifies pages which refer to FLASH object.
    Benefit/Payoff: FLASH objects may represent a maintenance problem and it is important to know which pages on your WebSite employ FLASH objects.

58. Script Objects Detected. This report identifies pages which refer to JavaScript, VBScript, or other scripting objects.
    Benefit/Payoff: Script objects may represent a maintenance problem and it is important to know which pages on your WebSite employ the image map method.

59. Image Maps Detected. This report identifies pages which use image maps to assist in navigation.
    Benefit/Payoff: Image maps may represent a maintenance problem and it is important to know which pages on your WebSite employ the image map method.

    HTML Content Checking

60. Broken Anchor Tags. This report identifies instances of a reference to a page's anchor tag that does not exist on the page. While not necessarily an error, the failure of the WebSite to jump to the specified position on the page may cause some user confusion.
    Benefit/Payoff: Anchor tags on a page that don't exist may cause user confusion, may be a Section 508 violation, and is probably indicative of poor WebSite practice.

61. Print Option Detected. This report identifies pages which have explit "printable view" options.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages with "printiable view" options may represent a maintenance problem and it is important to know which pages on your WebSite have this capability.

62. Cookie Producing Pages. This reports lists all pages on the WebSite that have HTML or Script passages that create and/or manage client-side cookies. This list assists in managing processing of clien-side cookies.
    Benefit/Payoff: Use of cookies needs to be restricted to known pages because of the possibility of abuse.

63. ALTs Missing on IMGs in Anchors. These pages have instances of <IMG... tags when there is no ALT= text specified. Such IMG's could impose a usability issue (see Section 508 support). This is particularly important when IMG's are part of links or where there could be user activity.
    Benefit/Payoff: Section 508 requirements as well as common sense suggest -- or require -- that images have textual backups.

64. ALTs Missing in Anchors. These pages have instances of <A ... tags when there is no ALT= text specified. This could impose a usability issue (see Section 508 support).
    Benefit/Payoff: Section 508 requirements as well as common sense suggest -- or require -- that clickable passages have textual backups.

65. ALTs Missing in INPUT Images. These pages have instances of <INPUT ... TYPE=Image tags when there is no ALT= text specified. This could impose a usability issue (see Section 508 support).
    Benefit/Payoff: Section 508 requirements as well as common sense suggest -- or require -- that clickable passages have textual backups.

66. ALT Tags Empty. These pages have instances of <ALT=... tags which contain no text.
    Benefit/Payoff: Section 508 requirements as well as common sense suggest that ALT tags that are empty are a potential problem.

67. HTML Errors. The page-by-page HTML checker found more than N "errors" in the HTML syntax. While in most cases HTML errors are not fatal in the sens that they impose constraints on rendering, because browser compensate, HTML errors are a symptom.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages with excessive HTML errors may not render well and need to be repaired to assure maximum user satisfaction.

68. Links To Prohibited URLs/Domains. A page is included in this report if it contains a link to a prohibited URL or domain.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages that point to prohibited URLs or domains are dangerous and you need to be informed of them.

    Visible Content Analysis

69. Spelling Errors. The visible text on the page has been put through the spelling checker and it found more than the specified threshold number of spelling errors.
    Benefit/Payoff: Poor spelling implies lack of attention, and is a user turnoff. Finding and fixing visible text spelling errors will prevent users from having a bad impression of a WebSite.
    Note: Spelling check is normally available for US English only. Spell checks for other languages can be arranged.

70. Data Collected Without Privacy Reference. The pages listed in this report are those for which there is no reference to the defined privacy report URL you specified.
    Benefit/Payoff: It is good practice, and may be a legal requirement, to know when and where references to your privacy statement are made -- or not made where they should be.

71. Prohibited Keywords/Phrases Present. A page is included in this report if it contains instance of keywords that are included in the prohibited words list you specified. You can fix onsite pages; you can disable references to offending offsite pages.
    Benefit/Payoff: Unpleasant as it may be to accept, if your pages are somehow hacked to include prohibited language this can have a extreme negative effect on your users.

72. Required Keywords/Phrases Absent. A page is included in this report if it does not contain any instance of a keyword from the required keyword list you specified.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages that fail to include specified keywords may fail to communicate the right message to your users.

73. External Pages Mentioning "For Sale". These pages are offsite (outside the WebSite under test) and contain the string "For Sale" (ci).
    Benefit/Payoff: Enough said!

74. Pages Without Visible Copyright. This report enumerates pages that do not have the word "copyright" or the special copyright symbol ©.
    Benefit/Payoff: Most organizations protect their WebSite with copyright declarations. This report shows those pages that do not have copyright protection indicated.

    Page Content Analysis

75. Excessive Word Density. This reports identifies pages that have excessive word density, i.e. too many words of text relative to the size of the page.
    Benefit/Payoff: Excessive word density signals a problem area on your WebSite.

76. Excessive Paragraph Density. This reports identifies pages that have excessive paragraph density, i.e. too many paragraphs of text relative to the size of the page.
    Benefit/Payoff: Excessive paragraph density signals a problem area on your WebSite.

77. Visible Text Fraction Too Small. The part of the page that consists of visible text is too small.
    Benefit/Payoff: Pages that involve too little visible text provide too little information and may represent a problem.

78. Link Count Too Large. A page with an excessive number of links may be an error.
    Benefit/Payoff: While navigational flexibility is good, too many links indicates a problem.

79. Image Count Too Large. A page that has too many images, relative to the number of HTML elements on the page, may be an error or at least warning the user about.
    Benefit/Payoff: Too many images on a page may indicate a problem.