Redirects

[haroldangenent]

We've talked about redirects today. This is what we decided:

• Stop using the Redirection plugin
• Create our own redirect table for plain 301 redirects
• Allow clients to create their own redirects
• Htaccess adjustments (regex redirections) will be placed in class-tp-redirects.php, this file has to be created with the right hook in it. There will be a wiki article on how to use this.
• Easy-to-use API for data migration

Optional features:

• Testing URLs. But then again, maybe this is better done with Screaming Frog SEO Spider.

Any additions?

Maybe we should give this some priority so we can still use redirects in new websites.

[haroldangenent]

Sidenote: Don't forget this when the Redirection API is finished: https://bitbucket.org/trendwerk/tp-plugins/issue/6/add-301-redirect-to-data-migration

[haroldangenent]

I've been working on this. Feel free to try this out. You'll need features branches features/redirects from trendpress and trendpress-child.

To-do's:

• Ability to remove redirects
• Ability to save your edited redirects
• Hotkeys for saving and dismissing edits (Escape and Enter)
• Paged scroll
• A lot of testing
• API & Regex default files for trendpress-child
• Wiki article on Regex

Commit: https://github.com/trendwerk/trendpress/commit/b03df07a4a9f4a437f0da493117b1b165f2010e6

[haroldangenent]

We've just talked about this. Wanted features:

• When a user changes their slug, ask them if they want to create a redirect
• Recognize eternal loops

Also, it should be more clear how the UI works. Results based on Source should be displayed first, Destination second. It's not very clear that pressing "Enter" creates a redirect, maybe a pop-out? Let's think about it.

[haroldangenent]

• Autofocus on search bar is not always great after editing or dismissing (e.g. when you're editing in the next 'page')
• Click-anywhere-to-edit
• Enter-to-create is unclear

[sboerrigter]

Hi Harold,

Thanks for this nice feature. I tested it today and it looks really good! Here are some bugs I found and some comments:

• I added a redirect, but it doesn’t redirect (from /about/page-image-alignment/ to http://localhost/trendpress/about/page-markup-and-formatting/). Maybe because /trendpress/ is removed from the URL?
• If I ad a redirection, the url stays in the search box. Maybe we should add a button to remove the URL from the search box so we can go to another redirect faster.
• When I search for the keyword “actie” I get a lot of results without “actie” in the URL. Why?
• The option “add a new redirect for [searchbox-input]” should alway be available in the bottom of the list.
• The feature to add a redirect after the slug of a post is changed is not working. Or haven’t you added this yet?

And some cosmetic comments:

• input field is a bit small
• the icons on the right have no hand icon
• On table rules with longer URL’s the icons don’t fit next to each other

[haroldangenent]

This might be causing bugs as well: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3902635/how-does-one-capture-a-macs-command-key-via-javascript

[haroldangenent]

To complicate this a little more, here are some ideas for future features:

• Automatically notice the user when a slug is changed
• Write redirects to .htaccess for immense speed (maybe this can be done automatically)
• Regex manager for .htaccess files
• Recognize eternal loops

[haroldangenent]

@sboerrigter Thanks for your feedback.

• I have just tried your redirect, but it seems to be working. The best thing is to also remove the site URL from the destination by the way. Keeps the URLs cleaner. Are you sure this page doesn't exist already? Maybe you can show me in person.
• In Safari you have the input type="search", which adds on option to do so (http://css-tricks.com/webkit-html5-search-inputs/). But I don't really get why you would need that button. Seems cluttering to me, you can easily remove the URL in other ways, and it's not like you always want to remove it.
• Does this only happen when you typ fast? Can you try typing slower? Because it might be results for the "act" part of your search, which took a while.
• Maybe it should only be there when the source is not found. Edit: Maybe this would be better as a tooltip when first using the search function
• This is a future feature request, I'm building a basic redirect manager first.

On cosmetics:

• Are you sure you have the redirects branche of both trendpress ánd trendpress-child? Cause it seems like you're missing some styling.

Feel free to make changes to the layout.

I'll keep posting updates here.

[haroldangenent]

Fixed a few things:

• AJAX requests are now in a queue - so when you typ 'actie' (fast or slow), it will display the right results
• Enter-to-create now shows a pointer / tooltip, according to WordPress standards (see screenshot below)
• Fixed a load of tiny bugs

As far as I see, this basic version is ready to be merged to master. What do you guys think?

[sboerrigter]

Redirect not working

• I tried redirecting from an existing page. This doesn't work of course because redirects only work on pages that give a 404 error te optimise performance.

Clear searchbox input

• I am on Safari, but I don't get the "clear" button in the search box. I can imagine that this feature could save a lot of time if you want to want to add multiple redirects. But I am okay with it if you think it shouldn't be there.

Wrong results for "actie"

• Still a lot of results but after looking closer the word "actie" appears in alle redirects in words like "interactief" and "reacties".

“add a new redirect” always visible

• The pop-up is a good feature, but I still think the way to add a redirect should always be clear. Maybe a button behind the search box with "add redirect" would work? If you want to use the return button you can, but users who are less familiar with the redirect list can use the button.

Add a redirect after the slug of a post is changed

• Okay, let's focus on the basics first.

Cosmetic changes

• Nope, I didn't update trend press-child. After updating it it looks good.

New features

• Looks good!

[haroldangenent]

Add a new redirect button I've added a this button. What do you think?

Merge This feature could use some cross-browser testing. Anyone interested in testing IE? Cross-browser test shouldn't get into the way of merging it to master.

What do you guys think? Basic version done & ready for merging?

[sboerrigter]

Look's good. I think it can go to the master branche after the IE test. I don't have virtual machine installed on my machine, so I can't test it.

Maybe @luukdv can test it?

[luukdv]

Will do.

[haroldangenent]

Did you get a chance to test this yet? Might be a good idea to implement this for our next project.

[luukdv]

Sorry for the delay.

I've tested the redirects in IE10, IE9 and IE8. Nothing weird, all works fine. I think it's ready for master.

[haroldangenent]

Awesome! Thanks alot for testing. Couple of small things to do, like a basic API and move the LESS from child to parent. Will merge to master some time next week.

[haroldangenent]

Merged it in https://github.com/trendwerk/trendpress/commit/455ef8d7db181927fcf5db2e1a76500f7f326ea4. Sorry for the delay, couldn't find time to create the basic API and wrap things up.