Friendly URL for web content example
This example demonstrates how friendly URLs for web content work with multiple web content viewers on a single DX page. The example describes the DX page structure referenced by the friendly URLs and explains the underlying structure of the content in an HCL Web Content Manager site framework.
The example also describes the configuration of the web content viewers. Starting with the combined cumulative fix readme 03 (CF03), the example also describes the use of the function to validate friendly URLs for web content. This example assumes that HCL Portal is configured to support friendly URLs for web content and their validation.
Elements in the example
The example is composed of the following elements:
-
DX page hierarchy
The DX page hierarchy in this example is:
Content Root > Home > Human Resources > Missing Content
Note
The page
Missing Content
applies only to the Combined Cumulative Fix readme 03 (CF03).The page
Home
has a friendly URL name ofhome
, and the pageHuman Resources
has a friendly URL name ofhr
. The pages can be accessed directly using the following friendly URLs for pages:http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home
-
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr
The following page parameters apply to the following pages in the DX page hierarchy: -
The page
Missing Content
has the unique namemissing.content
and is hidden from the navigation by setting the com.ibm.portal.Hidden page parameter totrue
. - The page
Content Root
has the friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorURI page parameter set tonm:oid:missing.content
. - The page
Human Resources
has the friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorContentPath page parameter set to/Web Content/Home/Human Resources/HR Default
. - Web Content Manager site framework
The Web Content Manager site framework resembles the DX page hierarchy:
Web Content (Web Content Library) > Home (site area) > Human Resources (site area) > HR Welcome (content item) > Health (site area) > Workplace Safety (content item) > Personal Wellness (content item) > HR Default (content item) > Missing Content (site area) > Content Not Found (content item) > HR Menu (menu component)
Note
The pages
HR Default
,Missing Content
, andContent Not Found
apply only to the Combined Cumulative Fix readme 03 (CF03).The content items in the
Home
site area can be referenced by the following content paths:Web Content/home/human resources/hr welcome
Web Content/home/human resources/health/workplace safety
Web Content/home/human resources/health/personal wellness
Web Content/home/human resources/hr default
The site area
Missing Content
stores a default content item that is displayed on the corresponding page by default.The menu component
HR Menu
is defined to display content from thehuman resources
site area and thehealth
site area. -
Content association
The DX page
Human Resources
has the default content association to theWeb Content/home/human resources
site area.The DX page
Missing Content
has the default content association to theWeb Content/missing content
site area. -
Web content viewers
The page
Human Resources
contains two instances of the web content viewer,Web Content Viewer A
andWeb Content Viewer B
.- The
Web Content Viewer A
viewer renders the menu componentHR Menu
and is configured to broadcast links to this DX page. - The
Web Content Viewer B
viewer inherits the content to display from the content association defined for the pageHuman Resources
. The viewer is configured to receive links from other portlets and from itself. The pageMissing Content
contains one instance of the web content viewer. The viewer inherits the content to display from the content association defined for the pageMissing Content
. The viewer is configured to receive links from other portlets and from itself.
- The
Browsing the example content
With the DX page and web content site framework defined, browsing the content demonstrates how the different elements interact:
-
Navigate to
Human Resources
page for the first time.- The URL that is displayed in the address bar of the browser is
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/!ut/p/b1/...
- The URL reflects the friendly URL names of the DX pages
Home
andHuman Resources
. - The
Web Content Viewer A
viewer renders the menu component and displays links to the content itemsHR Welcome
,Workplace Safety
, andPersonal Wellness
. -
The
Web Content Viewer B
viewer shows the default content itemHR Welcome
from the site areaHuman Resources
, because of the content association defined on the DX page.Note
When the DX page is first displayed, the path of the default content item is not included in the friendly URL.
- The URL that is displayed in the address bar of the browser is
-
Click Workplace Safety from the list of content items.
- The URL that is displayed in the address bar in the browser is
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/health/workplace%20safety/!ut/p/b1/...
- The
Web Content Viewer B
viewer displays content itemWorkplace Safety
. - The URL is adjusted so that the path to the content item (
health/workplace%20safety
) becomes part of the URL.
- The URL that is displayed in the address bar in the browser is
-
Click HR Welcome from the list of content items.
- The URL that is displayed in the address bar of the browser is
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/hr%20welcome/!ut/p/b1/...
- The
Web Content Viewer B
viewer displays the content itemHR Welcome
again, giving the same result as when the DX page was viewed for the first time. - Because the
Web Content Viewer A
viewer is broadcasting the link to the content item, the URL that is displayed in the browser is updated to reference the path to the content item (hr%20welcome
).
- The URL that is displayed in the address bar of the browser is
Content item references with friendly URLs for web content
The URL displayed in the web browser can sometimes include the content item path when you browse pages and content with web content viewers. However, you can also reference content items directly in friendly URLs for web content.
For example, to reference the content items HR Welcome
, Workplace Safety
, and Personal Wellness
in the context of the Human Resources
page, you would use the following friendly URLs for web content:
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/hr%20welcome
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/health/workplace%20safety
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/health/personal%20wellness
Note
These friendly URLs for web content include URL-encoded space characters (%20
) instead of unencoded space characters. Your web browser might accept unencoded space characters when specifying content item names in friendly URLs for web content. However, to ensure consistent behavior from the portal, use the URL-encoded value.
Testing invalid friendly URLs for web content
Sometimes, the friendly URL entered by a user or requested by a search crawler can be wrong. The following table shows friendly URLs that contain path information that does not identify an available content item and an explanation of the portal response when an invalid friendly URL is requested.
Invalid friendly URL for web content | Portal response | Explanation |
---|---|---|
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/products/appliances | - HTTP Status code 404 - Page Missing Content - Web content Content Not Found |
- Resolving the page The last path segment of the friendly URL that portal can match to a friendly URL name is home. Therefore, the resolved page is Home and /products/appliances becomes the path information of the request. - Validating the path information When validating the friendly URL for web content, portal assembles the content path to validate by appending the path information to the path of the default content association of the resolved page. As the page Home does not have a default content association to construct the content path, the friendly URL for web content is considered invalid. - Handling the invalid path information The HTTP status code of the response is set to the default value (404) because friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorCode is not set. The resolved page (Home) inherits the friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorURI setting from Content Root. Therefore, the portal resolves the URI nm:oid:missing.content that addresses the page Missing Content. The Web Content Viewer portlet on the page Missing Content uses the default content mapping of the page to determine the web content to render (Content Not Found). |
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/group incentives | - HTTP Status code 404 - Page Missing Content - Web content HR Default |
- Resolving the page The last path segment of the friendly URL that portal can match to a friendly URL name is hr. Therefore, the resolved page is Human Resources and /group incentives becomes the path information of the request. - Validating the path information When validating the friendly URL for web content, portal assembles the content path to validate by appending the path information to the path of the default content association of the resolved page. The result for the page Human Resources is /Web Content/home/human resources/group incentives. As there is no content item for the computed content path, the friendly URL for web content is considered invalid. - Handling the invalid path information The HTTP status code of the response is set to the default value (404), because friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorCode is not set. The resolved page (Human Resources) inherits the friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorURI setting from Content Root. Therefore, portal resolves the URI nm:oid:missing.content that addresses the page Missing Content. Additionally, portal sets the public Web Content Manager context as defined by the page parameter friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorContentPath of the resolved page (/Web Content/Home/Human Resources/HR Default). |
http://www.example.com:10039/wps/portal/home/hr/health/medical prevention and rehabilitation | - HTTP Status code 404 - Page Missing Content - Web content HR Default |
- Resolving the page The last path segment of the friendly URL that portal can match to a friendly URL name is hr. Therefore, the resolved page is Human Resources and/health/medical prevention and rehabilitation becomes the path information of the request. - Validating the path information When validating the friendly URL for web content, portal assembles the content path to validate by appending the path information to the path of the default content association of the resolved page. The result for the page Human Resources is /Web Content/home/human resources/health/medical prevention and rehabilitation. As there is no content item for the computed content path, the friendly URL for web content is considered invalid. - Handling the invalid path information The HTTP status code of the response is set to the default value (404) because friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorCode is not set. The resolved page (Human Resources) inherits the friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorURI setting from Content Root. Therefore, the portal resolves the URI nm:oid:missing.content that addresses the page Missing Content. Additionally, the portal sets the public Web Content Manager context as defined by the page parameter friendly.pathinfo.validation.errorContentPath of the resolved page (/Web Content/Home/Human Resources/HR Default). |