Installation

• When I run the installer a black window appears
• I can't get past the Registration Dialogue
• A message appeared saying Internet Explorer is not installed
• I can't open Web pages

Mapping

• New Map is always gray
• The map only contains one page
• The map doesn't contain all the pages I expected
• The page icon colors are wrong
• Mapping gets stuck on pages with JavaScript errors
• Mapping gets stuck with a Save File As dialogue
• Mapping gets stuck on a page (no dialogues appear)
• The map shows extra links on pages with frames
• How can I find the errors flagged on the map
• Why does the map contain HTTP errors
• Why do I get red stopwatch icons on my map
• Why can't I map more than 3 levels deep
• Why don't links in Java applets or JavaScript show up
• How do I map password protected pages
• I run out of disk space or virtual memory during mapping

Installation

When I run the installer a black window appears.

This can be caused by two things:

• Running the Installer on Win 3.x - the software only runs on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 or later.
• The installer has been corrupted during download - possibly download failed half-way through or it was transferred in text mode rather than binary mode - in either case you should download a new copy.

I can't get past the Registration Dialogue.

You need to type the information into the User ID and Registration Key fields exactly as you received it. It is usually easiest copying the information from the e-mail message and pasting it into the appropriate fields. If you've registered but haven't received your registration codes within two working days please e-mail us at support@electrum.co.uk

A message appeared saying Internet Explorer is not installed.

PowerMapper uses an embedded version of Internet Explorer to display web pages. If you don't have Explorer 3.0 (or later) on your system you'll need to download and install it.

I can't open Web pages.

The most likely reason is that Internet Explorer is not correctly configured. To verify this is the problem run Internet Explorer and try opening Electrum's web site. If you can't open this page in Explorer then there is a configuration problem. To resolve the problem try the Microsoft support pages from your usual browser.

If you usually use Netscape and and have just installed Internet Explorer it should have copied all the Netscape settings. It you already had Explorer installed check that the settings (especially the proxy settings) exactly match your Netscape settings.

Note: You must have Internet Explorer 3.0 or later installed to run PowerMapper.

Mapping

New Map is always gray.

This can happen for two reasons:

• The browser thinks it's still busy (the globe logo at the top right of the screen will be spinning). Try navigating to another page - after the page loads the globe should stop spinning and New Map will be enabled.
• There's no page displayed in the browser window at the right side of the PowerMapper screen. Try typing a URL into the address box and hit return. If no page is displayed refer to I can't open web pages.

The map only contains one page.

There are several possible causes:

• There are no links on the home page.
• There is an HTML error on the home page - this will be marked by a red flag.
• All links on the home page are to another web server.

The map doesn't contain all the pages I expected.

There are several possible causes:

• The crawler only visits pages on the same server as the home page, so pages on a different server do not appear on the map. The ability to crawl multiple servers will be added in a future release.
• The only navigation mechanism on your site is a site map or an A-Z index - the crawler ignores links from maps or A-Z indices because these are usually duplicates of some other links on the site (and produce a very flat map).
• Some pages were blocked by the Robot Exclusion Standard (ROBOTS.TXT) or explicitly blocked in the Blocks tab of the Mapping Options sheet. To find out which links are blocked for a site, http://www.altavista.com for example, open the link http://www.altavista.com/robots.txt. If you get a Not Found message then no links are blocked, if you get an Unauthorized or Forbidden message then all links are blocked and if you get a text file back this will list which links are blocked.

The page icon colors are wrong.

There are some palette handling problems with certain 256 color displays. The simplest workaround is to switch to a display mode with more than 256 colors.

Mapping gets stuck on pages with JavaScript errors.

When mapping a page with a JavaScript containing a syntax error (or using a Netscape-only feature) a warning dialogue appears. There are two workarounds:

• Disable JavaScript by unchecking the Run ActiveX Scripts check box on the Security tab of the Browser Options sheet.
• Fix the script error.

Mapping gets stuck with a Save File As dialogue.

When mapping a link to an unknown file type a Save File As dialogue appears. There are two workarounds:

• Block the link using Blocks tab of the Mapper Options sheet.
• Block all links to files with that extension using the Blocks tab of the Mapper Options sheet. To block all links to files with a .grim extension, add "*.grim" to the block list.

Mapping gets stuck on a page (no dialogues appear).

When mapping some sites the crawler sometimes gets stuck on a page. The usual cause is a graphic that fails to load but still seems to be loading. The workaround is:

• Reduce the Page Timeout setting in the Mapping Options sheet. For example, setting it to 30 seconds means mapper is never stuck for more than 30 seconds. Note that any pages that take longer than the Page Timeout setting to load (either because mapper got stuck or because they contain lots of graphics) will be marked with a red stopwatch icon.

The map shows extra links on pages with frames.

PowerMapper will add links to a page in both the <frames> and <noframes> tags. The simple workaround is to turn off links using the checkboxes beside the pages icons on the tree view of the site.

How can I find the errors flagged on the map.

All pages which have problems are marked with an icon containing a red cross in the structure view on the left side of the mapper window. Bring up the Properties sheet for the page by right-clicking on the icon. The Problems tab of the Properties sheet contains detailed descriptions of errors and line numbers in the corresponding HTML files. You can run useful tools like HTML editors or HTML validators by right-clicking on any of the problem description.

Why does the map contain HTTP errors.

Occasionally you may see HTTP error icons on your map. Possible causes include:

• A server side image map link missing the ISMAP attribute.
• A link outside the document space, such as a link to ../index.htm from http://www.electrum.co.uk/news.htm. This is a potential security problem since some older servers don't prevent these sort of links, potentially allowing access to data elsewhere on your server such as the system password list.

Why do I get red stopwatch icons on my map.

Pages that take longer than the Page Timeout setting are marked with a red stopwatch icon. This is useful if you want to see which pages take a long time to load. The factory setting is 1 minute but you may want to change this if you have a very fast or very slow connection.

Why can't I map more than 3 levels deep.

PowerMapper 1.0 only maps 3 levels into a web site. PowerMapper 2.0 can map an entire site by default, although it can be limited to a specific number of levels by the Limit Depth setting in the Mapping Options sheet.

Why don't links in Java applets or JavaScript show up.

PowerMapper 2.0 optionally looks for links in Java applet tags - this is controlled by the Java parameters setting in the Links page of the Mapping Options sheet. When this setting is turned on any <param> tag names that contain the words "url", "link" or "href" are treated as URLs. For example,

<param name="dest-url" content="http://www.electrum.co.uk/">

<param name="link1" content="http://www.electrum.co.uk/">

<param name="href" content="http://www.electrum.co.uk/">

 

If you turn this setting on and the param content attribute isn't a URL then a broken link icon will appear on your map.

PowerMapper 2.0 optionally looks for links in JavaScript applet tags - this is controlled by the JavaScript setting in the Links page of the Mapping Options sheet. When this setting is turned on any strings assignmed to location objects are treated as URLs. For example,

function GoTo()

{
parent.bigframe.location.href = "bigframe1.htm";
}

 

<a href="url1.htm" onClick="parent.bigframe.location.href = 'url2.htm'">

In the first example "bigframe1.htm" is extracted, and in the second "url1.htm" and "url2.htm" are extracted.

How do I map password protected pages.

If the home page of your site is protected this is quite simple - when you navigate to the home page you'll be prompted for a username and password. Once you've entered these you can map your site.

If only some pages are password protected then this is slightly more complicated. First navigate to the password protected pages and enter your username and password when prompted. then go back to the site home page and choose New Map.

I run out of disk space or virtual memory during mapping.

Each page and graphic displayed by PowerMapper is cached in the Temporary Internet Files folder located in your Windows or WinNT folder. This often means the entire site you're mapping ends up in the cache which in turn swallows up lot of disk space. If you run out of disk space then Windows will start complaining about virtual memory being full. If this happens during mapping go to the Advanced tab of the Internet Control Panel, then select the Temporary Internet files Settings button. In the Settings dialogue select the Empty Folder button to clear the cache (this can take a long time if it contains a lot of files). Once you've done this mapping should continue as normal.