Types of redirects

Target permalinks

You can add redirect URLs in the content edit page of the target asset, that is, the asset that you want to use in place of an obsolete asset. For example, if Article A is obsolete, and you want links to Article A to be redirected to Article B, then you set the redirect in the content edit page for Article B.

Target permalinks can only be used at the asset level.

For more information , see Redirecting an asset request to a target permalink.

Vanity URL redirects

A vanity URL is a long URL that has been converted into a shorter, more human-readable URL to make it easier for potential visitors to find it and remember it. The local URL is the easy-to-remember address, and the destination URL is the URL for the content. You can also specify the handling of query strings.

For example, Acme company has a new children’s toy called a Gidget that has gone viral, so they create a vanity URL redirect with the source URL (referred to in Brightspot as the Local URL) set to http://www.acme.com/gidget that redirects to the destination URL of http://www.acme.com/category/product/ID-980-145-gidget.

Vanity URL redirects can also be used to direct visitors from an obsolete resource to a new destination. The local URL is the obsolete resource.

Caution

You will receive an error message if you set the local URL that has not been deleted from the obsolete asset that it references.

Vanity URL redirects do not support wildcards (*) in the local URL. Vanity URL redirects can be used at both the asset and site level.

Vanity URL Redirects is a separate module than wildcard URL redirects to allow for separate permission controls. For more information , see Creating a role

For more information , see Adding redirect vanity URLs.

Wildcard URLs and wildcard URL redirects

A wildcard URL is a partial URL with asterisks, which serve as placeholders for additional path segments. For example, you could set a wildcard URL on a Gallery page, from which visitors can select and view videos from within the page. When a visitor selects a particular video, identified by a unique number, Brightspot uses the number to calculate the specific URL of the Gallery page with the embedded video.

A wildcard URL takes one of the following forms: <examplePath>/* or <examplePath>/**, where:

<examplePath> is the starting path of the URL, for example, gallery/videos.
<examplePath>/* indicates that <examplePath> can be followed by no more than one path segment, for example, /gallery/videos/15.
<examplePath>/** indicates that <examplePath>can be followed by multiple path segments, for example, /gallery/videos/hockeyclips/15.

Note

Brightspot supports wildcard URLs in cases where you do not want to set a specific URL on an asset. Carefully plan your use of wildcard URLs to achieve the desired effect.

Brightspot also supports wildcards for redirects at the site-level. Wildcard redirect functionality is in its own module to support separate permissions.

A typical use for wildcard redirects is to support migration efforts to a new site without the risk of 404 errors. For example, if your company is moving to a new platform for blogs and retiring all the existing blog content, you could create a wildcard redirect from www.company.com/blog/* to www.company.com/new-blog to ensure that any visitors to the old blog still have access to your blog.

In addition to wildcard matches, the wildcard URL redirects module also supports matched path segment transfer and query string additions. For example, you can redirect visitors from a zoo site that accepted donations to a wildlife refuge site that still accepts donations but also has extra ads as shown in the example below.

Wildcard redirect example.jpg — Wildcard redirect example

In the previous illustration, URLs will redirect as follows:

/zoo/why redirects to /refuge/why?ads=extra
/zoo/how?admin=true redirects to /refuge/how?ads=extra
/zoo/acme/flob?donation=5dollars redirects to /refuge/acme/flob?donation=5dollars&ads=extra

Wildcard redirects can be used at both the asset and site level.
For more information , see Adding wildcard URLs and redirects.