URL aliases and routing #

This page is for developers who need to know how Exponential turns an address into a page, and how to keep addresses stable. There are no route files to write for content: every node gets its address from the tree, and every other page is a module view with a fixed pattern.

Contents #

1. Two kinds of address
2. How a request is resolved
3. How aliases are made
4. When content moves or is renamed
5. Global aliases and wildcards
6. View parameters
7. Building links
8. Rebuilding and checking aliases
9. Pages of your own

Two kinds of address #

Both work for every node; aliases are what visitors and search engines see. The siteaccess part of an address (/ger/... with URI matching) is taken off before either is looked up (Siteaccesses and multisite).

How a request is resolved #

1. The siteaccess is chosen from the host, port or first path element.
2. If site.ini [URLTranslator] Translation=enabled (shipped), the rest of the path is looked up in the URL alias table (ezurlalias_ml, kernel/classes/ezurlaliasml.php); a match gives the system URL, for a node content/view/full/<node id>.
3. If no alias matches and WildcardTranslation=enabled, the URL wildcards are tried.
4. The module and view run with the parameters; content/view checks content/read and renders the node with its templates.

How aliases are made #

A node's alias is its parent's alias plus a segment made from the object's name (or the class's URL alias pattern). The segment is transformed by [URLTranslator] settings:

Two siblings with the same name get distinct segments (a number is added). Each translation of an object has its own alias in its language, so the German page of a node can have a German address.

When content moves or is renamed #

Renaming an object or moving a node creates new aliases and keeps the old ones as history entries, which still lead to the node. Links that editors made to content inside rich text point to node or object IDs, not addresses, so they follow moves automatically (Rich text). Old addresses from another system are not history: add them as custom aliases or wildcards (Migration checklist).

Global aliases and wildcards #

In the administration (Setup > URL translator and Setup > URL wildcards) administrators manage:

Every page and button is described in Links, URL aliases and wildcards.

View parameters #

Any address can carry /(name)/value pairs: /news/(offset)/10 pages a list, and your templates read $view_parameters.offset. View parameters are part of the view cache key, so each value is cached separately (View parameters). Use them for paging and simple filters, and keep the values to a known set, so robots cannot fill the cache with endless variants.

Building links #

In templates, never write addresses by hand; let ezurl add the siteaccess and the index file:

<a href={$node.url_alias|ezurl}>{$node.name|wash()}</a>
<a href={'/content/search'|ezurl}>Search</a>
<link rel="canonical" href={$node.object.main_node.url_alias|ezurl( 'double', 'full' )}>

ezurl quotes the value itself, so write no quotes around it (URL operators). In PHP, eZURI::build( '/content/view/full/2' ) gives the same path, and eZURI::build( $url, true ) the absolute URL (Links, URL aliases and wildcards: for developers). Links between several sites in one tree: Siteaccesses and multisite.

Rebuilding and checking aliases #

After a large import or a change of transformation settings:

./console exp:updateniceurls --help --allow-root-user
./console exp:verify_aliases --help --allow-root-user

updateniceurls rebuilds the aliases of all nodes; verify_aliases checks the alias table and, with --fix, repairs what is safe (Content languages, section 10). Run both on a copy first on a large site.

Pages of your own #

A page that is not content (a dashboard, a form handler, a JSON endpoint) is a view of a module in your extension: /exp_mysite/report/(year)/2026 is module exp_mysite, view report. Modules declare their views, parameters and policy functions in module.php (Modules and views). A global URL alias can give such a page a friendlier address.

Related pages #

• Objects, nodes and locations
• SEO basics
• Safe redirects
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.