🐛 Bug - CodeAuditor reports false 404 broken links

[Aibono1225]

Requested by: @Aibono1225 via YakShaver.ai 🦬
cc: @Aibono1225, @brookjeynes-ssw, @adamcogan, @PothieuG @zacharykeeping

Hi Team!

  🟥  Watch the video (1 min 19 sec)

  Url from screen share: https://ssw.com.au/rules/set-language-on-code-blocks
  Report link: https://codeauditor.com/build/2cd71c4f-146e-4b75-0a6b-ac1f6bf2c752?displayMode=2

Pain

When running the CodeAuditor check against the SSW.Rules project, the generated audit report flags certain links as 404 (broken). However, manual verification shows that some of these links are still valid and accessible. In at least one case, the report references broken anchor text, but the actual hyperlink works correctly when clicked. The source of these reported broken links is unclear, making it difficult for users to understand or remediate the issue. This results in false positives and reduces trust in the accuracy of the CodeAuditor link-checking results.

Acceptance Criteria

1. CodeAuditor correctly distinguishes between truly broken (404) links and valid, accessible links.
2. Anchor links that resolve successfully are not reported as broken in the audit report.
3. The audit report clearly identifies the exact source (file and line/element) of any detected broken link.
4. False positive 404 link findings are eliminated or significantly reduced.
5. Updated behavior is verified by rerunning the CodeAuditor check on the SSW Rules project with consistent results.

Reproduce Steps

1. Run the CodeAuditor analysis on the SSW.Rules project.
2. Review the generated audit report for 404 or broken link findings.
3. Locate a reported broken link based on anchor text in the report.
4. Manually navigate to the referenced page and click the reported link.
5. Observe that the link resolves successfully despite being flagged as broken.

Screenshot

Figure: Reported broken link flagged as 404 is actually working

[zacharykeeping]

Done - this should be resolved. There was an issue with the handling of relative links which was resulting in incorrect URLs being checked. These should now be handled correctly.

[Aibono1225]

Cc: @Marxoz @tiagov8

Thanks @zacharykeeping !

I reran the check today and the number has gone down. However, there are still some false positives in the report.

For example:
On this rule page: https://www.ssw.com.au/rules/destructive-button-ui-ux
This link is being marked as 404: 💄 UI/UX - Fix non-destructive buttons colors - Only delete buttons should be red
...but it loads fine

You can find other examples in the report. These aren’t relative links, so I think something else still needs to be fixed before we close this issue.

Report link: https://codeauditor.com/build/6552cac9-dcd3-419b-94e6-c4410aec8ebd?displayMode=2

[brookjeynes-ssw]

Hey @Aibono1225,

The link you provided above (https://github.com/SSWConsulting/SSW.YakShaver/issues/3034) is a private repository so it would make sense that it would show up as a 404 to CodeAuditor.

You can find other examples in the report. These aren’t relative links, so I think something else still needs to be fixed before we close this issue.

Can you confirm none of the other links that are 404'ing aren't private?
Thanks,

[Aibono1225]

Hi @brookjeynes-ssw ,

Thanks! I hadn’t noticed those were private repos. Other than that, only these two links are still being reported as false positives:

Source	Destination	Anchor Text
https://www.ssw.com.au/rules/automated-ui-testing	https://playwright.dev/docs/actionability/	Actionability
https://www.ssw.com.au/rules/automated-ui-testing	https://playwright.dev/docs/cli/	cool feature

[zacharykeeping]

Hi @brookjeynes-ssw ,

Thanks! I hadn’t noticed those were private repos. Other than that, only these two links are still being reported as false positives:

Source Destination Anchor Text
https://www.ssw.com.au/rules/automated-ui-testing https://playwright.dev/docs/actionability/ Actionability
https://www.ssw.com.au/rules/automated-ui-testing https://playwright.dev/docs/cli/ cool feature

Hi @Aibono1225

The PR here (#986) should address the first link, but we can't do much about the second link because it's redirecting client-side (https://playwright.dev/docs/cli/ -> https://playwright.dev/docs/browsers) which we can't handle. Updating that page to use the final redirected link would stop it from showing up again.

1. Can you please update the rule on https://www.ssw.com.au/rules/automated-ui-testing to change https://playwright.dev/docs/cli/ to https://playwright.dev/docs/browsers

Figure: Broken links on that page with the changes from the above PR

Figure: Redirects on that page are all client-side, rather than standard HTTP redirects