Understanding Drupal paths

In Drupal terms, a path is the unique, last part of the URL for a specific function or piece of content. For instance, for a page whose full URL is http://example.com/?q=node/7, the path is node/7. If your site is using "clean URLs", the full URL in this example would be http://example.com/node/7; the path would still be node/7.

Drupal paths are important because many configuration screens in the Drupal admin area use them. For instance, when you are adding a new item to a menu, you tell Drupal what page the menu item should point to by entering the path to the page.

Here are some examples of paths you might find in a Drupal site:

• node/3
• flexinode/7
• taxonomy/term/6
• flexinode/list/3
• user/login
• user/3

How to find Drupal paths

There are several ways to find the path to a particular page on your Drupal site. The first step is to find the URL of the page of interest:

• If you know how to navigate to the page, you can go there and find the URL in your browser's URL bar.
• You can also hover your mouse over a link to the page (such as in the Views administration screen or the content management screen at Administer >> Content management >> Content), and most browsers will show you the URL in the status section at the bottom of the browser window.
• For Taxonomy term pages, you can find the URL in the Taxonomy or Categories administration page (at Administer >> Categories in Drupal 4.6 and 4.7, Administration >> Content Management >> Categories in Drupal 5, or Administer >> Content Management >> Taxonomy in Drupal 6). If you are viewing a list of terms for a particular vocabulary, each term should be a link to its taxonomy page. Hover over the link or follow the link to find its URL.

The URL you find could have several forms:

• http://example.com/?q=[something] -- In this case, the [something] after ?q= is the path. For example, if the URL is http://example.com/?q=node/7, the path is node/7.
• http://example.com/[something] or http://example.com/[your Drupal subdirectory]/[something] -- In this case, the [something] after the base path of your Drupal site is the path. For example, your URL could be http://example.com/node/7 or http://example.com/mysubdir/node/7; the path in either case is node/7.