Crawling a domain allows Institutions to assess the accessibility status of its files and pages. With this feature, Institutions can have an up-to-date accessibility score, thus, getting to know how content is performing. 

Every time a change is made in a domain, a crawl is helpful to:

  1. Review the content
  2. Identify accessibility issues 
  3. Provide an Accessibility score

For example, let's say an administrator adds a link to a domain's content. Crawling the domain verifies that any new changes performed since the last crawl are accessible. In this specific example, it would verify if the link is broken.

There are two types of crawls: Automatic and Manual.

Automatic crawls are defined and configured during the onboarding process with institutions. Here, they decide if they want to enable this feature, as well as its frequency (daily or weekly, for instance). Manual crawls are performed by the institution whenever they see fit, without the need of contacting support.

Crawl duration depends on the number of files and pages within a specific domain.

How to perform a Manual Crawl of a domain

Follow these steps to crawl a domain:

  1.  Within the Accessibility Report, select the Domains tab 
  2. Locate and select the domain you want to crawl
  3. Once in the specific domain, select the Crawl domain button in the upper right corner
    Screenshot of the upper part of the Accessibility Report. The 'Crawl domain’ button is located to the right side.
  4. The following banner appears, stating that the crawl is in progress. Keep in mind you can continue to browse your Accessibility Report while this process runs in the background.
    Screenshot of the ‘Crawl in progress' banner which shows up when a crawl is in progress. It reads: This domain is being crawled and may take a while to complete. You can continue to browse while this process runs in the background. A 'Cancel crawl’ button is shown at the bottom of the banner.
  5. You can cancel the crawl at any time. The following banner appears asking if you are sure you want to cancel the crawl. Take into account that if you cancel, all progress will be lost.
    Screenshot of the 'Cancel crawl' banner which shows up when cancelling a crawl:. It reads: Are you sure you want to cancel this crawl? This section is being crawled and may take a while to complete. If you cancel this crawl, it means any progress made during this crawl so far will be lost. A ‘Continue crawl’ and ‘Cancel crawl’ buttons are shown.
  6. Once the crawl finishes the following banner appears stating that the crawl is complete, and changes are now reflected in the report:
    Screenshot of the ‘Crawl complete' banner which shows up when the crawl of the domain is complete. It reads: Crawl complete Changes made in this domain’s pages are now reflected in the report. A 'Close' button shows up at the bottom.

Keep in mind that if a crawl is running (either manual or automatic), new crawls will only be available once the one in progress is complete.

Is it possible to trigger a crawl while another one is in progress?

All Crawl domain buttons are inactive when a crawl is in progress. Once the crawl is complete, you can start a new crawl. Bearing this in mind, it's not possible to have simultaneous crawls. 

What happens if a crawl has an error?

Even though it's not common, errors may occur whilst crawling domains. If this is the case, the following banner appears, stating that there was an internal error and that you should retry crawling the domain. Keep in mind that if the error persists, it's necessary to contact support.
 

Screenshot when an error occurs while scanning a section. It reads: An internal error occurred. Please retry crawling or contact support if the issue persists.

To contact support, go to the Behind the Blackboard site and log in with your credentials. If you don't have credentials, you can request them from your Institution's Account Executive.