Extensionless flat urls, umbracoUseDirectoryUrls, but not always
This is not a question, just a useful note for anyone out there.
I have just resolved a problem that I client has had whilst moving to Umbraco. They had a number of printed publications with "short urls", i.e. 'mydomain.com/downloads' or 'mydomain.com/pha'.
The reason for them was that on marketing material it is perceived to be more likely that someone will type in 'mydomain.com/offers' rather than 'mydomain.com/products/offers.aspx' or whereever the page might be in the hierarchy.
The additional requirement was for the client to be able to create new ones themselves so they didn't want to have to adjust the UrlRewriting.config file.
At the point I became involved it was too late to look at removing all the .aspx extensions using 'umbracoUseDirectoryUrls' (Google it), so I created an httpModule to check the url against a list of values extracted from actual umbraco content nodes. What I mean to say is that the user can create special 'short link' content nodes that have the match text and either an internal or external link to redirect to. The httpModule then checks the request url against this list and redirects as appropriate.
I've captured it all in one simple DLL, including an event to flush the cached data on document publication, so if anyone wants a copy, please let me know.
Ha! Thanks for that. I didn't know that at all. Maybe this thread will at least help someone out in the future.
However all is not in vain as often the pages that are linked are buried deep in the hierarchy and my solution allows for one place where all the shortlinks are defined so it is easier for the client. It does mean however that this could have been implemented with simple XSLT (for external URLs) and umbracoRedirect for internal urls.
Cool, thanks. You have brought this to my attention again. I feel a little like a fool now as I knew these items previously, but have not used them in ages and they had sunk to the back of my mind. Good to have a refresh.
Extensionless flat urls, umbracoUseDirectoryUrls, but not always
This is not a question, just a useful note for anyone out there.
I have just resolved a problem that I client has had whilst moving to Umbraco. They had a number of printed publications with "short urls", i.e. 'mydomain.com/downloads' or 'mydomain.com/pha'.
The reason for them was that on marketing material it is perceived to be more likely that someone will type in 'mydomain.com/offers' rather than 'mydomain.com/products/offers.aspx' or whereever the page might be in the hierarchy.
The additional requirement was for the client to be able to create new ones themselves so they didn't want to have to adjust the UrlRewriting.config file.
At the point I became involved it was too late to look at removing all the .aspx extensions using 'umbracoUseDirectoryUrls' (Google it), so I created an httpModule to check the url against a list of values extracted from actual umbraco content nodes. What I mean to say is that the user can create special 'short link' content nodes that have the match text and either an internal or external link to redirect to. The httpModule then checks the request url against this list and redirects as appropriate.
I've captured it all in one simple DLL, including an event to flush the cached data on document publication, so if anyone wants a copy, please let me know.
Cheers
Steve
Hi Steve,
If you configure umbraco to use friendly urls http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/install-and-setup/setting-up-umbraco-for-friendly-urls but leave umbracoUseDirectoryUrls set to false, Umbraco work with both syntax (example.com/about and example.com/about.aspx)
Petr
Ha! Thanks for that. I didn't know that at all. Maybe this thread will at least help someone out in the future.
However all is not in vain as often the pages that are linked are buried deep in the hierarchy and my solution allows for one place where all the shortlinks are defined so it is easier for the client. It does mean however that this could have been implemented with simple XSLT (for external URLs) and umbracoRedirect for internal urls.
Hey ho! You live and learn. Thanks for the tip.
Cheers
Steve
You also can use UmbracoUrlAlias if you need change hierarchy.
http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/reference/umbraco-best-practices/umbracourlalias
Cool, thanks. You have brought this to my attention again. I feel a little like a fool now as I knew these items previously, but have not used them in ages and they had sunk to the back of my mind. Good to have a refresh.
Cheers
Steve
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