Been working heavily on the Handbook for the last 8 months or so and what can I say, the URL alias situation is driving me fricken nuts. It's a mess. I am considering spending a lot of time updating them by hand. But I'm not sure that's the most effective use of my time... but I'm really not sure pathauto could be set up to handle all the idiosyncrasies there either.

Whether pathauto ever gets set up I REALLY want to fix the top level Handbook page aliases. Here are all the paths from the main Handbook landing page http://drupal.org/handbook and then > what I'd like to change them to (I used active verbs in the paths where it made sense, to be inline with the handbook/interface language).

Getting Started with Drupal

  1. Understanding Drupal: http://drupal.org/getting-started/before > http://drupal.org/getting-started/understand
  2. Installation Guide: http://drupal.org/getting-started/install > NO CHANGE
  3. Administration Guide: http://drupal.org/node/627152 > http://drupal.org/getting-started/administer
  4. Structure Guide: http://drupal.org/node/627082 > http://drupal.org/getting-started/structure
  5. Site Building Guide: http://drupal.org/node/257 > http://drupal.org/getting-started/build
  6. Theming Guide: http://drupal.org/theme-guide > http://drupal.org/getting-started/theme

Writing Your Own Code

  1. Developing for Drupal: http://drupal.org/contributors-guide > http://drupal.org/contribute/developer (because this doesn't actually contain info for non-dev contributors, and then it and the docs contrib path at the bottom match; could also be /contribute/code)
  2. API Reference: http://api.drupal.org/ > NO CHANGE
  3. Examples for Developers: http://drupal.org/project/examples > NO CHANGE (this is actually a project page)

Tutorials

  1. Drupal Cookbook: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook > http://drupal.org/handbook/tutorials/beginners-cookbook
  2. Tutorials: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials > http://drupal.org/handbook/tutorials
  3. Videos and slides: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/videocasts > http://drupal.org/handbook/videocasts

Reference

  1. Code snippets: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/snippets > http://drupal.org/handbook/snippets
  2. Troubleshooting: http://drupal.org/Troubleshooting-FAQ > http://drupal.org/handbook/troubleshooting (this page's title should also be modified to just "Troubleshooting"
  3. FAQs: http://drupal.org/node/323096 > http://drupal.org/handbook/faq (this section is kinda odd, but picking my battles)

Community

  1. About Drupal: http://drupal.org/about > NO CHANGE
  2. Getting involved: http://drupal.org/getting-involved > http://drupal.org/contribute (wtf is going on in this section - http://drupal.org/getting-involved is the landing page, but all subsequent pages with aliases in this section use /contribute even though the section is called "getting involved" - contribute really seems more appropriate...does the section title need to change?)
  3. Documentation team: http://drupal.org/contribute/documentation > NO CHANGE

Also note:
- drumm says that as long as i don't collide any paths that it won't impact the redesign (they are religiously doing fresh db imports) http://redesign.drupal.org/handbook (drupal/drupal)
- davereid and drumm have confirmed that path_redirect is set up so we won't have a problem as far as losing links, and people not being able to use old bookmarks etc.
- greggles notes that pathauto and token might be a bad idea due to performance issues on d.o
- updating the subpages is a whole other matter (read: MASSIVE TASK)
- have been adding module page aliases as i go in the standard of: http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/foo where the project alias matches the end of the path for the module's project page on d.o. http://drupal.org/project/foo and this also matches the path alias in D7 core for the help page, which is at http://example.com/admin/help/foo
- i am proposing getting rid of the /customization/ bit of many paths - there is no "customization" section so that part is unnecessary (and just creates longer than necessary URLs)
- i find it odd that everything in the "getting started" area has /getting-started/ rather than /handbook/ - especially since most subpages have /handbook/, would love suggestions here

...if this is purely a matter of hand updating things as i go, please do shunt this back to the docs queue. ;)

Comments

gdd’s picture

gdd
he/him
Primary language English
Location Portland, OR
commented

I believe you might be able to batch update the subpage urls with some carefully crafted sql queries. Someone from infra can probably help you with this.

arianek’s picture

arianek commented

well that would be handy. ;)

lisarex’s picture

lisarex commented

+1 Ariane... I've had to look at these aliases a lot for the redesign (and in may places we have links to these pages in the tpl.php files)

I'd be happy to help (and then update drupalorg module as needed to reflect any updates)

Re: Getting Involved page, I can explain :) See (and review) #909468: Contribute and Getting Involved ... redundant to have both?

sepla’s picture

sepla commented

I second this, too.

wmostrey’s picture

wmostrey commented

@arianek Are we really going to assign manual url aliasses? It seems like an immense waste of resources. I think it might be a good idea to take this up with some of the d.o webmasters (including Greggles) about activating token + pathauto for the book content type only, and to let cron sort it out. Or run it on a database dump and import the new url_alias table.
But seriously: planning, coordinating and configuring the url aliasses takes up time that can better be spent on actual documentation tasks.

arianek’s picture

arianek commented

@wmostrey:

like heyrocker said, perhaps a sql query can be used once we figure out what patterns are needed, so that it doesn't need to be done manually. i was mainly thinking that perhaps i should manually update the first level only (about 20 or so links) in the interim.

this is in the webmasters queue so that they can weigh in on it (i discussed this a bit with greggles and davereid on IRC as noted above.)

also, as noted greggles said (and webchick concurred in IRC) that pathauto/token on d.o is not realistic due to performance issues.

and obviously it's not the best use of my time to manually update tons of these, but this is a long standing issue that should be addressed one way or another, so that is why i filed an issue on it. it not only sucks for people working on the handbook, but also anyone trying to find anything. (and has SEO implications)

wmostrey’s picture

wmostrey commented

@arianek Understood and agreed. So, what is the next step in making this happen?

- Do we need to decide the urls first? I completely agree with your proposed list.
- Can we update them already based on the proposed list? I'd be happy to update all of them, but I'm not able to edit the first one for instance (it's locked?). And on the pages I can edit I'm not able to update the url alias. Who can do this?

Please note that the current url for "Developing for Drupal" is http://drupal.org/contributors-guide and not http://drupal.org/handbook/contributors-guide

lisarex’s picture

lisarex commented

@wmostry, people with the administrator role can change url aliases.

I don't think it would be too much effort to update the top level ones manually if we divide and conquer :) I can help ID the book pages that are popular (via google analytics) + ones that are considered major pages in the redesign. I am sure the SEO redesign team would be happy to chip in too. I'll point them to this issue. (Is there an SEO tag?) and I'd be happy to help w/ actual updating.

silverwing’s picture

silverwing commented

marked #617172: Change url for Developing for Drupal book as a duplicate of this.

arianek’s picture

arianek commented

@silverwing - thx ;)

@wmostrey - i didn't want to go ahead updating things without some input about the paths, and also i would like to think in more detail about the patterns that will trickle down to second level before anything gets changed. so do not want to be hasty here, and end up having to redo bits.

@lisarex - doing just the top level is quick, and it's no problem for me to do myself (since i have adequate perms nowadays) ;) just want to settle on the new aliases and make sure to think through the trickledown of patterns before implementing any of them.

wmostrey’s picture

wmostrey commented
Status: Active » Reviewed & tested by the community

Ariane, it looks like everyone agrees these are good top-level aliasses. You can go ahead an apply them or have them applied.

lisarex’s picture

lisarex commented

Also, joachim asked in IRC earlier about getting an alias for http://drupal.org/node/751826 => Form API Quickstart Guide ... the only thing above it w/ a path is http://drupal.org/developing/api. I didn't create one because I wasn't sure the pattern to follow.

Should we introduce a page in Docs where we lay out some path patterns? It's not urgent, of course.

arianek’s picture

arianek commented
Status: Reviewed & tested by the community » Needs review

@wmostrey, next step is updating them ;) was going to do it tonight but then realized the old plan needs revising...

@lisarex, totally could document the path standards somewhere once they're re-approved. i added the one you asked about up there for @joachim in the list too.

so, just an update here, when the redesign launched, the handbook became "Documentation" and is now at /documentation and some of the new paths are below step 3/Documentation at http://drupal.org/start but haven't been updated on http://drupal.org/documentation yet.

also, the volacci guys weighed in with their opinions (SEO-wise) on here: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuGhfSvk_lfodFB2M3ZrU2N6b3J1bmd... but some of that didn't really make sense for how the content types and sections on d.o are set up.

in light of all of this, here's my updated proposal (including the new ones that were set on the redesign pages):

Getting Started with Drupal

  1. Understanding Drupal: http://drupal.org/getting-started/before > http://drupal.org/documentation/understand (already implemented)
  2. Installation Guide: http://drupal.org/getting-started/install > http://drupal.org/documentation/install (already implemented)
  3. Administration Guide: http://drupal.org/node/627152 > http://drupal.org/documentation/administer
  4. Structure Guide: http://drupal.org/node/627082 > http://drupal.org/documentation/structure (already implemented)
  5. Site Building Guide: http://drupal.org/node/257 > http://drupal.org/documentation/build (already implemented)
  6. Theming Guide: http://drupal.org/theme-guide > http://drupal.org/documentation/theme (already implemented)

Writing Your Own Code

  1. Developing for Drupal: http://drupal.org/contributors-guide > http://drupal.org/contribute/develop
  2. API Reference: http://api.drupal.org/ > NO CHANGE
  3. Examples for Developers: http://drupal.org/project/examples > NO CHANGE (this is actually a project page)

Tutorials

  1. Drupal Cookbook: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials/beginners-cookbook > http://drupal.org/documentation/tutorials/beginners (would it be bad to leave off -cookbook altogether?
  2. Tutorials: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/tutorials > http://drupal.org/documentation/tutorials
  3. Videos and slides: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/videocasts > http://drupal.org/documentation/tutorials/videos

Reference

  1. Code snippets: http://drupal.org/handbook/customization/snippets > http://drupal.org/documentation/snippets
  2. Troubleshooting: http://drupal.org/Troubleshooting-FAQ > http://drupal.org/documentation/troubleshooting (this page's title should also be modified to just "Troubleshooting"
  3. FAQs: http://drupal.org/node/323096 > http://drupal.org/documentation/faq (this section is kinda odd, but picking my battles)

Community

  1. About Drupal: http://drupal.org/about > NO CHANGE
  2. Getting involved: http://drupal.org/getting-involved > NO CHANGE
  3. Documentation team: http://drupal.org/contribute/documentation > NO CHANGE

    4. Other

  4. Form API Quickstart Guide: http://drupal.org/node/751826 > http://drupal.org/developing/api (already implemented) > should probably be http://drupal.org/contribute/develop/api to be consistent with the other in "Writing Your Own Code"?

Can I get some +1's on that and then I'll go ahead and update em?

dave reid’s picture

dave reid
he/him
Primary language English
Location Nebraska USA
commented

I don't have access to the spreadsheet, but I wanted to make a few quick comments.

Developing for Drupal: http://drupal.org/contributors-guide > http://drupal.org/contribute/develop

I'd say make it http://drupal.org/developing or http://drupal.org/documentation/developing, but I feel like the latter will eventually end us up with looooong aliases

Form API Quickstart Guide: http://drupal.org/node/751826 > http://drupal.org/developing/api (already implemented) > should probably be http://drupal.org/contribute/develop/api to be consistent with the other in "Writing Your Own Code"?

If anything this should go under the existing http://drupal.org/developing/api/form/quickstart or something like that. We have current structure for this section of the book, so it should match/extend.

Also using /contribute doesn't seem to match anything in the redesign IA??

arianek’s picture

arianek commented

@davereid thank you for input!

- how about just /develop? all the new aliases that were updated for the redesign are that sort of verb... i'd be fine with that (i'm not really feeling too pushy about everything having /documentation, though it depends how you get to it in the site).

- totally did not know there was already a FAPI section (not my area of expertise, i'll leave that be)

- no... /contribute doesn't, but this is one of those areas where we (lisa and i) had talked about /documentation being in the title making the URL's crazy long (and it's not really documentation, more about how to contribute.... open to suggestion here.

lisarex’s picture

lisarex commented

Reviving this old thread!! :)

For Developing for Drupal: http://drupal.org/contributors-guide > how about /develop-for-drupal and retitle the page?

Everything else is +1 from me.

arianek’s picture

arianek commented

funny, i was just thinking about how i should document these paths somewhere...

i'm thinking we ought to stick with a similar structure to the other top level sections... so http://drupal.org/documentation/develop - we were initially thinking of /contribute/develop but the /contribute is being used for the "getting involved" guide eg. http://drupal.org/contribute/documentation

thoughts on where i could document all the path aliases i've been doing so that people stay consistent? reassign this back to me when you're done and i'll follow up. ;)

lisarex’s picture

lisarex commented

That sounds fine. I've updated the path to http://drupal.org/documentation/develop and the title is now Develop for Drupal.

As for path aliases in Docs, I think they should be documented as a new node in http://drupal.org/about/authoring (argh, another needs-updating path!)

Once there's some recorded guidelines and recommended paths, I'll be a lot more proactive about fixing them as I find them. Totally do not mind doing stuff like that.

lisarex’s picture

lisarex commented

Actually path aliases are have got a solid mention here: http://drupal.org/documentation-writers-guide#alias so guess it seems good to keep them there for now.

wmostrey’s picture

wmostrey commented

What's the status of this issue? For example the first page in the original post

Understanding Drupal: http://drupal.org/getting-started/before > http://drupal.org/getting-started/understand

None of both links now work. Does the original post need an update, or is this work covered in another ticket? Can we proceed with adding the proposed path aliases to the nodes?

arianek’s picture

arianek commented

Lisa and I manually updated a bunch of them when the Redesign launched. I can't remember the details anymore!

http://drupal.org/getting-started has a redirect to http://drupal.org/documentation/understand

If you find others that are glaringly bad, please post and we'll update them to be more consistent.

Maybe we should even close this?

tvn’s picture

tvn commented
Status: Needs review » Closed (fixed)

Closing old issues. Please re-open if needed.