In DITA XML, it’s crucial to ensure that internal links are valid and functional to provide a seamless user experience. Detecting and resolving broken or invalid internal links is essential for maintaining the integrity and usability of your documentation. Broken links can lead to user frustration and hinder the effectiveness of your content. Here, we discuss how to detect and resolve such issues.

One way to detect broken or invalid links is through automated validation tools. These tools can scan your DITA content to identify links that reference non-existent or outdated topics. Additionally, they can check for links with incorrect syntax. Using DITA-OT (DITA Open Toolkit), you can set up validation processes to catch these issues during the build process. The toolkit provides options to enable link validation, ensuring that links are correctly formatted and point to valid resources.

Example:

Below is an example of how to configure DITA-OT to validate links during the build process:

<!-- DITA-OT build configuration to enable link validation -->
<args>
  <arg name="validate" value="linking"/>
</args>

This configuration instructs the toolkit to validate linking during the build. If there are broken or invalid links in your DITA content, DITA-OT will report errors, allowing you to identify and resolve them before publishing your documentation.