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URL management

External URL validation

Every link that is input into a RichText or URL Field is stored in the URL table. You can view and edit published URLs in the Link manager without having to modify the Content items. This means that you don't have to edit and re-publish your content if you just want to change a link.

The Link manager contains all the necessary information about each address including its status (valid or invalid) and the time it was last checked (when the system attempted to validate the URL). By default, all URLs are valid.

You can use the ezplatform:check-urls command to check all the addresses stored in the URL table. It validates the links by accessing them one by one. If a broken link is found, its status is set to "invalid". The last checked field is always updated.

The following protocols are currently supported:

• http
• https
• mailto

Enable automatic URL validation

To enable automatic URL validation, you need to set up cron to run the ezplatform:check-urls command periodically.

For example, to check links every week, add the following script:

echo '0 0 * * 0 cd [path-to-ezplatform]; php bin/console ezplatform:check-urls --quiet --env=prod' > ezp_cron.txt

Next, append the new cron to user's crontab without destroying existing crons. Assuming the web server user data is www-data:

crontab -u www-data -l|cat - ezp_cron.txt | crontab -u www-data -

Finally, remove the temporary file:

rm ezp_cron.txt

Configuration

Configuration of external URLs validation is SiteAccess-aware and is stored under ezpublish.system.<SITEACCESS>.url_checker. Example configuration (in /app/config/ezplatform.yml):

ezpublish:
    system:
        default:
            url_checker:
                handlers:
                    http:
                        enabled: true
                        batch_size: 64
                    https:
                        enabled: true
                        ignore_certificate: false             
                    mailto:
                        enabled: false

Available options are protocol-specific.

http/https protocol

Option	Description	Default value
enabled	Enables the validation	true
timeout	Maximum time the request is allowed to take (in seconds)	10
connection_timeout	Timeout for the connect phase (in seconds)	5
batch_size	Maximum number of asynchronous requests	10
ignore_certificate	Verify the peer's SSL certificate / certificate's name against host	false

mailto protocol

Option	Description	Default value
enabled	Enables the validation	true

Custom protocol support

It's possible to extend external URLs validation with a custom protocol. You need to provide a service implementing the \eZ\Bundle\EzPublishCoreBundle\URLChecker\URLHandlerInterface interface:

<?php

namespace eZ\Bundle\EzPublishCoreBundle\URLChecker;

interface URLHandlerInterface
{
    /**
     * Validates given list of URLs.
     *
     * @param \eZ\Publish\API\Repository\Values\URL\URL[] $urls
     */
    public function validate(array $urls);

    /**
     * Set handler options.
     *
     * @param array|null $options
     */
    public function setOptions(array $options = null);
}

and register it with an ezpublish.url_handler tag. For instance:

app.url_checker.handler.custom:
    class: 'AppBundle\URLChecker\Handler\CustomHandler'
    ...
    tags:
        - { name: ezpublish.url_handler, scheme: custom }

The scheme attribute is mandatory and has to correspond to the name of the protocol, for instance ftp.

URL aliases

URL aliases are not SiteAccess-aware. When creating an alias, you can select a SiteAccess to base it on. If the SiteAccess root path (configured in content.tree_root.location_id) is different than the default, the prefix path that results from the configured content root is prepended to the final alias path.

Note

Make sure that you correctly define languages used by the site in the configuration (under the ezplatform.system.<scope>.languages key). Otherwise, redirections for the renamed Content with translations in multiple languages may fail to work properly.

Known limitations

The Legacy storage engine does not archive URL aliases, which initially had the same name in multiple languages. For more information, see the Jira ticket.

URL alias patterns

You can configure how eZ Platform generates URL aliases. The configuration is available under ezpublish.url_alias.slug_converter, for example:

ezpublish:
    url_alias:
        slug_converter:
            transformation: example_group
            separator: dash
            transformation_groups:
                example_group:
                    commands:
                        - space_normalize
                        - hyphen_normalize
                        - apostrophe_normalize
                        - doublequote_normalize
                        - your_custom_command
                    cleanup_method: url_cleanup

transformation indicates which pattern will be used by default. The transformation_groups key contains the available patterns for URL generation. There are three types of separator available: dash, underscore and space.

A transformation group consists of an array of commands (see all available commands) and a cleanupMethod.

You can make use of pre-defined transformation groups. You can also add your own, with your own set of commands. To add commands to an existing group, provide the group name and list the commands you want to add.

Regenerating URL aliases

You can use the ezplatform:urls:regenerate-aliases command to regenerate all URL aliases. After the command is applied, old aliases will redirect to the new ones.

Use it when:

• you change URL alias configuration and want to regenerate old aliases
• you encounter database corruption
• you have content that for whatever reason does not have a URL alias

Before applying the command, back up your database and make sure it is not modified while the command is running.

bin/console ezplatform:urls:regenerate-aliases

You can also extend the command by the following parameters:

• --iteration-count — to define how many Locations should be processed at once to reduce memory usage
• --location-id — to regenerate URLs for specific Locations only, e.g. ezplatform:urls:regenerate-aliases --location-id=1 --location-id=2

URL wildcards

Using the public PHP API you can set up global URL wildcards for redirections.

For example, a URL wildcard called pictures/*/* can use media/images/{1}/{2} as destination. In this case, accessing <yourdomain>/pictures/home/photo/ will load <yourdomain>/media/images/home/photo/.

URL wildcards can be created with the public PHP API with the help of the URLWildcardService:

$source = 'pictures/*/*';
$destination = 'media/images/{1}/{2}';
$redirect = true;

$urlWildcardService = $repository->getURLWildcardService();
$repository->sudo(function ($repository) use ($urlWildcardService, $source, $destination, $redirect) {
    $urlWildcardService->create($source, $destination, $redirect);
});

If $redirect is set to true, the redirection will change the URL address. If it is false, the old URL address will be used, with the new content.

URL wildcards must be enabled in configuration with:

ezpublish:
    url_wildcards:
        enabled: true