URL maps: import, export and undo in the administration #

This page explains the URL map screens of the administration interface: importing a file of old addresses into the URL translator, the wildcards and the redirects (/content/urlimport), the import history with its undo (/content/urlimporthistory), the export (/content/urlexport) and the list of redirects (/content/urlredirects). The buttons Import, Export, Import history and Redirects above the URL translator and the wildcards lead there.

It is for administrators who move a site to this installation, or who keep the addresses of an old site working. The file formats are described in The URL map file formats; what the import adds to an installation, and the console commands, in URL map import and export.

Guides · Related: Links, URL aliases, wildcards and search statistics, Verify it's you, Importing and exporting URL maps, Migrating URLs (a tutorial), URL map examples

1. Import a URL map #

Import (/content/urlimport) takes a file, or rows pasted into the text box: CSV, JSON, Excel (.xlsx), OpenDocument (.ods), Apache or nginx rewrite rules, at most 10 MB. The format is found from the file's name or content; choose it only when neither says.

Preview keeps the file on the server and shows what each row would do. Nothing is written yet.

2. The preview #

Each row of the file is listed with its state, as a filter above the table:

Untick a row to leave it out; Keep the ticks saves them for the rows of the page. Plan again plans the file again with old hosts mapped to a siteaccess, or with another choice for addresses that have an entry. Dry run checks every row against the site again and counts what the import would do, without writing. Plan as CSV and Plan as JSON download the preview. Throw away removes the file; otherwise it is removed after a day.

Import asks you to confirm who you are ("Verify it's you"), then writes the ticked rows as one import and shows its number. A row whose old address changed since the preview is skipped.

3. Import history and undo #

Import history (/content/urlimporthistory) lists every import, newest first: when, by whom, from which file, how many entries were created, replaced, skipped or failed, and the state (applied, undone, partly undone). An import's page lists every entry it wrote.

Undo import asks "Verify it's you" again, then removes every entry the import created and puts back every entry it replaced, the last first. An entry changed after the import is listed above the button and kept, unless Also undo the entries changed after the import is ticked (the console's --force); the import is then partly undone, and can be undone again later.

4. Export #

Export (/content/urlexport) downloads the global URL aliases of the URL translator (optionally also the custom URL aliases of content, written as node:42), the wildcards and the redirects, as CSV, JSON, .xlsx, .ods, Apache or nginx rules. The siteaccess and language filters apply to the redirects (and the language to the aliases); URL aliases and wildcards belong to every siteaccess. Importing an export into the same installation finds every row unchanged.

5. Redirects #

Redirects (/content/urlredirects) lists the redirects imports made that a global URL alias cannot hold: old addresses with a query (/index.php?id=12), temporary redirects (302, 303, 307), 308 and redirects to other sites. They are checked on the full address before the URL aliases and wildcards. A redirect can be removed here (one, or the ticked ones); it stops working at once.

Wildcards that redirect temporarily show Temporary redirect (302) on the wildcards page.

6. Who may do what #

Importing and undoing ask "Verify it's you" (site.ini [ReauthGroup_system]). A role that has content/* (or */*, as Administrator has) includes both functions; give content/urltranslator_import on its own to a role that may import URL maps but has content/urltranslator only.