Active
Project:
Documentation
Component:
Docs infrastructure
Priority:
Major
Category:
Task
Assigned:
Unassigned
Reporter:
Created:
2 Nov 2016 at 04:57 UTC
Updated:
8 Nov 2016 at 19:10 UTC
Jump to comment: Most recent
If you don't then...
I have to post this on all the new d.o pages:
The permanent URL for this page is: https://www.drupal.org/node/# Do not link to any of the new Documentation pages using the URL in the address-bar. That URL will change every time someone decides to change that page's 'title'. If you want to link to one of the new drupal.org documentation pages, login to drupal.org, click the "Edit" button for the page you want to link to, and remove the "/edit" portion of the URL that you then see in your browser's address-bar.
---
AKA "Sheeeeet". Oh, man. Too bad the new doc pages use 'friendly URLs', instead of the old 'node #(s)'. That means that every time I change a page title, the Universe will implode. I suppose you Admins are under the mistaken impression that 'friendly URLs' have a positive bearing on anything. They don't. Just ask Google. Oh, maybe you think people will remember the 'text' more easily than the number. I don't know. Maybe you can. See if you can remember this tomorrow morning at 'coffee'...
I prefer to tell someone, "895232", or "drupal.org/node/895232", as for example in a D-Con presentation, or other training tutorial.
Comments
Comment #2
christopher james francis rodgers commentedComment #3
christopher james francis rodgers commentedComment #4
christopher james francis rodgers commentedComment #5
christopher james francis rodgers commented"If you don't..., you'll be saddened, for sure": Round 2
Actually, now that the above mentioned 'friendly URL' has changed, you need to, instead, for tomorrow's coffee break, remember:
https://www.drupal.org/docs/7/extending-drupal-7/installing-contributed-modules-find-import-enable-configure-drupal-7
And then you will need to search all drupal.org domains, for any links to the old 'friendly URL', and edit each of those pages to correct them with the new 'friendly URL'.
And then you will need to search Google for every page across the Earth that had linked to that page, and use 'Who-Is' to find and email each webmaster, and write them, begging them to correct their broken links.
You're not out of the woods yet, my friend...
Then, you will need to continuously track every title change that is made on the new drupal documentation pages and repeat the d.o corrections process for all page that had linked to each of those 'changed-title-pages', and also repeat the begging of the Public at Large per page.
All the best; intended.
-Chris (great-grandpa.com)
___
"The number one stated objective for Drupal is improving usability." ~Dries Buytaert *
Comment #6
christopher james francis rodgers commentedI decided to use the following at the top of each of the new d.o document pages instead, until we change back to node numbers (assuming we will). I think it is better than what I had first posted above. What do you think?
...And for the existing 'yet to be migrated' pages, too, so that they will be ready to go.
---
For the top of all doc pages yet to be migrated
Note: The permanent URL for this page is: https://www.drupal.org/node/XXXX Although this page is still in the old documentation section or drupal.org, eventually it will be moved to the new 'docs'. Do not link to any of the new Documentation pages using the textual 'friendly URL' in the address-bar of those pages. The URL for this, or any other page in the new drupal.org documentation section, will change every time someone decides to change the page's 'title'. If you want to link to one of the new drupal.org documentation pages, login to drupal.org, (or register, and confirm your registration in your eMail), click the "Edit" button for the page you want to link to, and remove the "/edit" portion of the URL that you will then see in your browser's address-bar. The permanent URL you should use to link to this, or any other new drupal.org documentation pages, will be similar to https://www.drupal.org/node/###### with numerals instead of '######'.
For the top of all doc pages already migrated
Note: The permanent URL for this page is: https://www.drupal.org/node/XXXX Do not link to this page, or any of the new Documentation pages, using the textual 'friendly URL' in the address-bar. The URL for this, or any other page in the new drupal.org documentation section, will change every time someone decides to change the page's 'title'. If you want to link to one of the new drupal.org documentation pages, login to drupal.org, (or register, and confirm your registration in your eMail), click the "Edit" button for the page you want to link to, and remove the "/edit" portion of the URL that you will then see in your browser's address-bar. The permanent URL you should use to link to this, or any other new drupal.org documentation pages, will be similar to https://www.drupal.org/node/###### with numerals instead of '######'.
Comment #7
hansfn commentedThough a bit ranty, the poster has several valid objections:
So basically, I support the idea of reverting to node ID URLs as the default. If not, I support the idea of making the node ID/short URL visible and recommending linking to that. No need to make such fuzz about it - the suggested text is far too long ;-)
However, I do like the system we had/have - manually created path alias for important/high-level pages like https://www.drupal.org/documentation/modules/MODULE_NAME and https://www.drupal.org/docs/VERSION and so on.
Comment #8
hansfn commentedComment #9
tvn commentedWhen the title of a page changes, the redirect is added automatically, so that users never end up with 'Page not found' even if they follow the old url. So the Universe does not really implode. Right now we are in a clean up mode post-migration, but once that is done, page titles do not change that often.
We do intend to keep titles relatively short. There is a 'Summary' field where more detailed description of a page can go. In the example given the title of the page should really be 'Installing contributed modules', with all other words going into the Summary field. That field is being displayed in guide content listings, search results, it goes into 'Description' meta tag and so is being pulled in by other services e.g. if you paste a link in Slack. If there is a place where this field is not being displayed yet, but should be, we can fix that. We will double check if Google pulls those fields or not.
The old system of manually created path aliases was not ideal for many reasons: only a few people had access to actually create aliases, people who were creating content didn't necessarily know that you can request one and how to do it, the links were inconsistent, creating a mess of IA. E.g. you could have a page 5 levels deep in the hierarchy with a top level alias /[something] and then a page 2 levels up in the hierarchy with a completely unrelated alias /word/something/another, etc. With the automated aliases we are creating a consistent structure so it was easier for users to understand where they are in the documentation. And so they were able to predictably move up in the hierarchy or pages or discover relevant content. E.g. docs/7/understanding-drupal is a D7 guide, docs/8/understanding-drupal is a D8 version of it.
While some of the urls will be long, and won't be that easy to remember, I would argue that remembering different numbers for various documentation pages you find useful is not great either. For cases like showing urls on a slide in a presentation there are url shorteners if the url is indeed too long.