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  On Relative Links and a Simplified URL structure

+ 0 like - 0 dislike
830 views

I realised a few days back, that while using the most simplified URL structure, /123/why-do-birds-sing, relative links don't work! The simplest URL structure for which it works is /?qa=123/why-do-birds-sing, Here is the exact description of the problem that I sent to polarkernel just today. 

[...] This is because, in the /123/why-do-birds-sing format, if I am on say, /4636/technical-feature-requests, if I click on say, the attributions link, instead of being directed to /attributions-page, I am directed to /4636/attributions-page instead of /attributions-page.   
 
Or if I click on a link to say, /4606/can-we-install-comment-rating, then I am instead directed to /4636/4606/can-we-install-comment-rating. [...]  

One solution is that just before we go online, public, we make all the relative links absolute.    

However, this would be very time consuming. Is there a way to probably edit the htaccess file itself, so that the relative links are still correct?  

I have turned the simplest URL structure on for a while just so that you understand what I mean. Here are a few links: 

attributions-page

./attributions-page

/attributions-page

4606

./4606

/4606

asked Mar 16, 2014 in Feature Request by dimension10 (1,985 points) [ no revision ]
retagged Mar 16, 2014 by dimension10

1 Answer

+ 2 like - 0 dislike

This is a cautionary tale on the fact, that on a system which is that complex, changes should only be made if well understood and tested.

If we look at the source code of a page using this /123/why-do-birds-sing URL structure, we see that all relative links created by Q2A are now written as ../link, using a double-dot slash.

In order to rescue this situation, I have made a patch (fortunately possible within my OverSnow theme) that corrects all relative links in questions, answers and comments, so that the following types of links work correctly:

/attributions-page
./attributions-page
../attributions-page

/4657
./4657
../4657

This should repair almost everything. Links made by hand by us administrators, like those in the upper side-panel, have to be absolute. We will have to think on that if we move to go online.

answered Mar 16, 2014 by polarkernel (0 points) [ no revision ]

Thanks! That greatly simplifies the work needed to do, and definitely saves the situation : )   

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