Path Finder

Please note: In its current release this module is not suitable for inexperienced users as it requires configuration via a PHP file. If sufficient interest in this module is evident, I will add a configuration UI. (Contributions welcome).

In a nutshell

This module helps with some path management and SEO issues. It provides an alternative method of automatically generating a short URL such as mysite.com/abc to route your visitor to content (nodes, comments, users profiles, taxonomy terms). Additionally, a longer "friendly" URL such as mysite.com/abc/seo-friendly-url can be used, which can be changed at any time without 404 issues, as long as it begins with the short URL. The short URL can be redirected to the long URL for SEO purposes.

In other words, urls become:

www.yoursite.com/SHORT-CODE/any-additional-info-for-seo-and-user-friendliness-this-can-be-changed-at-any-time

Features:

• Short urls and SEO/user-friendly ulrs
• Greatly simplified management of path aliases (nothing to do!)
• Integration with PathAuto
• Multi-language support

What is it for?

Let's say you have content at node/1234, which has an alias of latest-news/my-descriptive-seo-friendly-url. Then later you decide you need to change the alias to: news-archive/my-better-more-descriptive-very-seo-friendy-url.

You have a number of choices:

• Replace the old url alias with the new one, accepting that off-site links and search-engine references to the content will get broken.
• Keep the old url alias and add the new one.
• Somehow add a redirect from the old url to the new one.

The first option is simple, but with significant disadvantages, and is potentially very bad for SEO. The second and third are typical solutions, but require ongoing management of an ever-growing list of aliases and/or redirects, which over time can become quite a headache. (see: comparison with typical solution). Pathauto and its related modules provide one solution for automating the process of generating new aliases and redirects.

Path Finder provides an alternative solution. First it generates a short url for node/1234. Various formats are available, but the the results might be: www.example.com/tdr or www.example.com/837. These are not conventional Drupal aliases (and are not stored in the alias database) - they are encoded forms of the entity id (node number, taxonomy term number, etc.)
Then we allow unlimited alternative versions of that url. As long as they start with the short url, they will all work:

• www.example.com/837
• www.example.com/837/latest-news/my-descriptive-seo-friendly-url
• www.example.com/837/news-archive/my-better-more-descriptive-very-seo-fri...
• www.example.com/837/absolutely-anything-can-go-here-it-still-works

Displayed links

Links shown on your site, such as those displayed in pages or views are generated using the short url with the current alias appended. You can change that alias at any time without anything breaking.

Pathauto integration

If you have the Pathauto module installed, aliases can be dynamically generated using current settings. So, if you are using content-type names or taxonomy terms to automatically generate friendly urls with Pathauto, you are free to make changes (e.g. change a node title or taxonomy term) knowing that updated urls will be displayed on your site, but all old urls will continue to work - you don't need to manage lists of aliases and redirects.

Redirecting

You can use the short url - www.example.com/837 - for posting elsewhere. Typically, incoming requests to the short url would be redirected to the full (friendly) version, and requests to an out-dated version of the friendly url would be redirected to the current version. Path Finder includes a simple redirection feature, but also works with other redirection modules such as Global Redirect and MultiLink Redirect.

See it working

This module has been in trouble-free live use for several years on my own site. For example
http://support.netgenius.co.uk/dnh will redirect you the friendly url. You can also try http://support.netgenius.co.uk/dnh/with-anything-you-want-here and it will still work!

Why only a beta release?

The current beta release does not include any UI for configuration. You need to edit the file pathfinder_config.inc to set configuration for the module. Depending on the level of interest in this module, a UI for configuration may be added.

Documentation

• Preliminary documentation.
• Please read #1783906: Compare with path redirect for information about important differences between PathFinder and PathAuto.
• If PathAuto is installed, PathFinder will use PathAuto's URL generation patterns.
• PathFinder Redirect is not needed if you use MultiLink Redirect or some other suitable redirection module.

Add your feedback

Comments invited: http://groups.drupal.org/node/254118