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Portfolio link check

This page shows the live result of a Doc Detective test that verifies the work samples linked from the portfolio page are still there, and still real documents, not just URLs that happen to return 200.

Why this matters​

This site already runs Lychee across every link on every page, including the portfolio's. So why does a portfolio-specific test exist too? Because Lychee and Doc Detective check different claims.

Lychee asks: does this URL return an acceptable HTTP status code? That catches link rot: a moved page, a deleted file, an incorrectly typed URL. It doesn't catch a file that resolves with a 200 but isn't actually the document it claims to be: a corrupted upload, a PDF accidentally overwritten with an empty file, or a redirect page that returns 200 with the wrong content. A "resources," "case studies," or "work samples" page can accumulate exactly this kind of quiet failure: the link works, but what's behind it doesn't.

This test uses Doc Detective's checkLink action to confirm each portfolio work sample resolves, the same claim Lychee checks. Then it goes further: a shell script fetches each file and confirms it's a real, complete document, checking the PDF file signature and a minimum byte size for each PDF, and a markdown heading and minimum size for the tutorial file. That's the check Lychee has no way to perform.

Latest result​

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How the test works​

The test is embedded directly in this page's source as Doc Detective steps and runs the following:

  1. Run checkLink against each of the six portfolio work-sample files and confirm each returns HTTP 200.
  1. Run a shell script that fetches each of the same six files and confirms each is a real, complete document: the five PDFs must start with the %PDF file signature and clear a minimum byte size, and the markdown tutorial must contain a top-level heading and clear its own minimum byte size.

If a file is moved or deleted, then checkLink fails. If a file is replaced with something corrupted, truncated, or empty (a failure that still returns HTTP 200), then the shell script fails instead. Either way, the badge turns red.

Run the test manually​

If you clone this repo, then you can run the test locally against the live site. No local server is needed, because this test hits the deployed URLs directly.

npm install -g doc-detective
doc-detective --config doc-detective/config.json --input website/src/pages/doc-detective/portfolio-link-test.mdx

Run the test on GitHub Actions​

The test runs automatically every day and on every push to main that touches this page or the portfolio page. To trigger it on demand:

  1. Go to the Actions tab in the GitHub repository.
  2. Select Portfolio link check.
  3. Click Run workflow.