Allow Link Detection and Remediation on Supported Files
- Andrea Harvey
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Overview
You can enable link detection and remediation when defining the behaviors for the job during job creation. It runs for both simulation and transfer jobs and scans files to identify any links in the files. The Jobs report will display link information if available for the job. Once all the job runs are complete, you can execute link remediation to update the links, so you don’t have to edit them manually.
Link Detection
Link detection only scans the latest version of each file and reports the links detected. It does not scan previous versions. When doing the content analysis for link detection, DryvIQ needs a seekable stream. To obtain that, DryvIQ downloads the file into memory if it is small enough or into a temp location on the processing node if it is too large. DryvIQ analyzes that stream, resets it, and uploads the file to the destination. After the transfer is complete, DryvIQ removes the temp file if one is needed for file analysis.
Supported File Types for Link Detection
Link detection currently only identifies links in the following file types:
Files with the DOCX extension (available in Microsoft Word 2007 and newer)
Files with the PPTX extension (available in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 and newer)
Files with the XLSX extension (available in Microsoft Excel 2007 and newer)
Google Docs
Google Sheets
Google Slides.
DryvIQ will not detect links that are part of functions in Microsoft Excel files or Google Sheets.
Job filter exclusions take precedence over Link Detection. Therefore, if you set a job filter exclusion to ignore DOCX, PPTX, or XLSX files, Link Detection will also ignore these files.
Supported Link Types for Link Detection
Hyperlinks: These are links to websites or documents. Hyperlinks can be http/https/ftp/ftps URLs or links to files.
In Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, these links are created using the Link option on the Insert tab or by right-clicking on the selected text or cell and selecting Link from the shortcut menu.References to other Excel spreadsheets: In Microsoft Excel files, these are links to cells in other Microsoft Excel files. These links are made by creating a formula referencing a cell or range of cells in another Microsoft Excel file. The cells are formatted similarly to the following examples:
=[AnotherSpreadsheet.xlsx]SheetName!A1='C:\Absolute\Path\To\[AnotherSpreadsheet.xlsx]SheetName'!B1
Links documents/object: In Microsoft PowerPoint files, this content has been imported into the presentation. This content is imported using the Object option on the Insert tab or the Paste Special option to insert a Microsoft Word Document Object link.
Unsupported link Types for Link Detection
Unformatted links: DryvIQ will not count unformatted links (URLs added as plain text in the document).
IncludeText fields: Link detection does not support links added through IncludeText fields using the Insert Quick Parts option in Microsoft Word files.
Link Detection Impact on Job Performance
Simulation Jobs: When link detection for Simulation jobs, the jobs will take longer to execute because DryvIQ must download the document into memory to detect links. (DryvIQ does not normally load files into memory during simulation because they are not being migrated.) DryvIQ estimates a 5-10% impact.
Transfer Jobs: As noted above, DryvIQ scans for links while the document is in memory while migrating the file. Therefore, the impact on job time is minimal. The document's size has a negligible effect on link detection times unless the file size is very large (GBs in size). Link detection will cause a nominal amount of CPU utilization to detect links. Memory is not affected.
Viewing Link Detection Information
When enabled, link detection will identify the links in files and make the information available for review on the individual Job reports and the roll-up reports. Information is available on the Content Insights, Items, and Log pages.
It is important to note that spreadsheet link counts will not always match, depending on how the link was added to a cell. If the links are added to multiple cells simultaneously, DryvIQ reads the link as one link shared across cells. In this instance, all shared links count as one link. If the links are added to multiple cells separately (one cell at a time), DryvIQ counts each cell separately, so it counts each link individually.
Content Insights
The bottom of the Content Insights page for jobs with Link Remediation enabled will display a “Link remediation status overview” section. This section lists the number of files without links, the number of links identified requiring remediation, the number of links that have been remediated, the number of links where remediation failed and needs to be executed again, and the number of links for which remediation failed. You can view specific details about the individual links on the Items and Links pages.
Use the Export this report link to export the information to a CSV file for further review. The export includes the following information.
Field | Description |
|---|---|
source_id | The ID assigned to the file on the source platform |
source_name | The filename on the source platform. The source and destination file names may not match if DryvIQ needs to sanitize the filename due to character or length restrictions for the destination platform. |
source_path | The path where the file is located on the source platform. |
destination_id | The ID assigned to the file on the destination platform |
destination_name | The filename on the destination platform |
destination_path | The path where the file is located on the destination platform. |
link | The URL for the link detected. |
count | The number of times the link was found in the file |
Items
A link remediation status is assigned to every file included in a migration, even if link detection isn’t enabled for a job. You can configure the Items page to display the status by changing the third or fourth column header to Link remediation status.
The column will display the link remediation status for every file. There are five statuses:
Nothing to remediate: No links were detected in the file.
Remediation needed: Links were detected in the file, and remediation must be executed to update the links.
Complete: Remediation was executed, and processing was finished. Regular URLs and unsupported URLs will also be considered “Complete” as there is no action to take against them.
Retry: Remediation was triggered but was not completed. Link remediation needs to be executed again to remediate the link.
Failed: At least one link in the file failed to be remediated. Failed files will not be reprocessed during subsequent link remediation executions unless the status is changed to “Retry.”
You can also filter the Items page based on a specific remediation status to narrow the results to display only files that need to be remediated, retried, etc.
Links
The Links page provides information about each link identified. There will be an entry for each link identified; therefore, you will see the source item listed multiple times if multiple links were identified within the file. You can edit the second, third, and fourth columns to display the information most relevant to your review. Review the table below for a summary of the available column options.
Filtering by Remediation Status
The Filter by option on the Links page allows you to filter by remediation status to view only files with a specific status.
None: The file has no remediation status because no links were detected.
Remediated: Remediation was executed, and processing was finished.
Ignored: DryvIQ could not match the link to the target file, or the link does not require remediation, such as a URL to an external website. You should verify that the link is correct and that the item it targets has been included in a transfer job so DryvIQ has tracking data for it. You can retry remediation for the link.
Unsupported: The link is unsupported and cannot be remediated. See Unsupported Link Types for Link Detection for a list of unsupported link types.
Retry: Remediation was triggered but was not completed. Link remediation needs to be executed again to remediate the link.
Failed: At least one link in the file failed to be remediated. Failed files will not be reprocessed during subsequent link remediation executions unless the status is changed to “Retry.”
Link Remediation
You must manually trigger link remediation for the job(s) that contain links. When link remediation runs, it will remediate the linked URL so it matches the new location of the linked file.
Supported Platforms for Link Remediation
DryvIQ only remediates links that point to files on Box, File System, Google Workspace, or Microsoft 365.
Supported File Types for Link Remediation
DryvIQ only supports link remediation for Microsoft Office files (DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX) in version 2007 or newer.
Supported Link Formats for Link Remediation
Link remediation remediates supported links upon execution. However, for certain platforms, links must be in specific formats for link remediation to work. Information for those platforms is provided below.
Box
DryvIQ supports links in the following format when remediating links from Box:
<https://<tenant>>.app.box.com/file/<platform id>
<https://<tenant>>.app.box.com/folder/<platform id>
<https://<tenant>>.app.box.com/integrations/officeonline/openOfficeOnline?fileId=<platform Id>&sharedAccessCode=
Microsoft
DryvIQ supports links in the following format when remediating links from Microsoft OneDrive for Business:
<https://<tenant>>-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/personal/<User's OneDrive path>/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B<Platform Id>%7D&file=<Filename>&action=default&mobileredirect=true
DryvIQ supports links in the following format when remediating links from SharePoint Online:
http://sharepoint.com/123/abc.txt
https://skysyncdesktop.sharepoint.com/123/456
http://sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7bf79c7ceb-c458-4c5d-bc51-4e76a280fd4a%7d&action=edit
https://skysyncdesktop.sharepoint.com/:x:/r/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7BD1825663-F6D6-4277-BE01-F5E8B67CA932%7D&file=Book.xlsx&action=default&mobileredirect=true
Executing Link Remediation
Choose the job(s) by selecting the box before the job name.
Click More options and select Execute link remediation in the menu that displays.
DryvIQ adds the job to the job queue.
Once the job finishes running, the link remediation status will be Complete if remediation is successful for all identified links.
If the link remediation status is Retry, link remediation did not run. You need to execute it again.
If the link remediation status is Failed, at least one link cannot be remedied. You must edit the link manually.The link detection information on the Content Insights, Items, and Links pages is updated to reflect the current link information.
Link Remediation Impact on Jobs
Link remediation does not affect migration jobs' transfer times or speed because it is a separate process executed after migration when link detection is completed. However, it entails making additional calls to the destination and source platforms, so platforms with caps or overage charges may be impacted. Link remediation does add time to the overall migration project because it adds a separate process that requires execution. The link remediation process is roughly equivalent to the extra time it would take to do another delta run on a document count basis. For example, remediating links in 1000 files in a job takes about as much time as running a delta run with modifications to 1000 files. This should be factored in when planning a project using link detection and remediation.