JavaScript/jQuery check broken links

Question

I developed a small Javascript/jQuery program to access a collection of pdf files for internal use. And I wanted to have the information div of a pdf file highlighted if the file actually exist.

Is there a way to programmatically determine if a link to a file is broken? If so, How?

Any guide or suggestion is appropriated.

Answer 1

If the files are on the same domain, then you can use AJAX to test for their existence as Alex Sexton said; however, you should not use the GET method, just HEAD and then check the HTTP status for the expect value (200, or just less than 400).

Here's a simple method provided from a related question:

function urlExists(url, callback) {   var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest();   xhr.onreadystatechange = function() {     if (xhr.readyState === 4) {       callback(xhr.status < 400);     }   };   xhr.open('HEAD', url);   xhr.send(); }  urlExists(someUrl, function(exists) {     console.log('"%s" exists?', someUrl, exists); }); 

Answer 2

Issue is that JavaScript has the same origin policy so you can not grab content from another domain. This won't change by upvoting it (wondering about the 17 votes). I think you need it for external links, so it is impossible just with .js ...