URL Redirects

[grandmasterv]

Parvin is having issues creating Seminar content on the production website. It seems to be creating extra URL redirects for no reason. This is causing all kinds of problems with some seminar URLs linking to different seminars. I even found one seminar that had 4 URL redirects and was giving an infinite loop error.

I have removed all URL Redirects that referenced seminars. https://www.microbiology.ubc.ca/admin/config/search/redirect/list/seminars

[grandmasterv]

I had Parvin create a new seminar and it did not create a redirect. It created its alias ok too. I then had her create another seminar with the exact same date and time and it did not create a URL redirect either. The alias generated behaved correctly and simply added a "-0" to the end of the conflicting alias URL.

I then had her update one of the test seminar nodes and no URL Redirects were generated either.

I am wondering if me removing all the seminar URL redirects that were previously in the system fixed this issue. I also looked for news and event redirects but there did not seem to be the same issue as with the seminars. I have a hunch there may be an issue with using the URL Alias module and URL Redirects module on the same site.

I have emailed Patrick about this issue and we will have to discuss if there is anything further to do.

[grandmasterv]

After further investigation the problem is probably due to the URL Redirect setting "Automatically create redirects when URL aliases are changed." For example, someone creates an event as TBA when speaker or presentation is unknown at the time of creation. They then edit the event updating this information and this causes the old Alias to be deleted and a new one created. This change triggers the redirect to be created. This setting is meant to preserve traffic heading to the original alias.

Options in the Path Auto module for creating aliases. Currently using Create new, delete old:

Update action

• Do nothing. Leave the old alias intact.
• Create a new alias. Leave the existing alias functioning.
• Create a new alias. Delete the old alias.

Patrick said he will test this more before disabling it.

[ubcmicro]

This problem can be reproduce by changing the date of a seminar to a new date, then changing it back to the original date. The pathauto module updates URL alias and the redirect module is creating a new redirect when the URL alias changes. The system will complain about creating an infinite loop because there is now two redirect directing to each other.

To correct this issue, delete all the URL redirects to this node.

Or to prevent this from happening in the future.

Under the Redirect module configuration, uncheck "Automatically create redirects when URL aliases are changed."

Module versions in use Pathauto 7.x-1.2 Redirect 7.x-1.0-rc1

[grandmasterv]

The gotcha for disabling the redirects is if say an event alias changes after its been posted for awhile a user may of bookmarked it already and then get a 404 error when they try to view it. I think it might be best to change the alias generation to not use the date field and only use fields that are probably not going to change, then change back to the same content like the title or something.

An other alternative are to stop the alias from updating once created.

Thoughts?