Using "Shortcut" URLs

Created by Margie Wylie-Petruzziello, Modified on Thu, 18 Jan, 2024 at 3:03 PM by Margie Wylie-Petruzziello

Short URLs for any Page

To create a short URL, simply cut all the characters between the site name (for example cs.lbl.gov) and its last segment (the characters following the final backslash).

For example, the short URL for https://site.gov/URL segment1/URLsegment2/finalsegment is https://site.gov/finalsegment.

Short URLs ensure that links will not break so long as the page and its unique final URL segment exist somewhere on the referenced website.

While staff pages are our most common use case for short URLs, any publicly distributed link should probably be to the short version. Not only is it easier to get on a slide and to remember, but short URLs won't break should the page be relocated on the website.

Staff Pages

Any staff page, no matter where it appears in the CRD, ESnet, CS, or NERSC site structure, can be reached from site.gov/your-name where "your-name" is the last segment of your staff page URL(everything following the final backslash). By default, this is your first and last name as they appear in your page title.

You may change your short URL at any time by editing the last URL segment of your staff page.

For example, if your current staff page URL ends in "firstname-middlename-lastname" you might shorten the final segment to "lastname," making your short URL: https://site.gov/lastname, so long as your lastname creates a unique terminal URL segment (see "Troubleshooting" below).

Research Group Pages (Research divisions website only)

On the CRD.gov website, group-level pages can be reached through shortened URLs, for example, https://crd.lbl.gov/divisions/amcr/computational-science-dept/anag/

can be reached via https://crd.lbl.gov/anag/

This shortcut works for deeper levels in group pages, too.

For example,

https://crd.lbl.gov/divisions/amcr/computational-science-dept/anag/about

can be reached via https://crd.lbl.gov/anag/about

A Caveat

SilverStripe (our CMS) searches the site tree to locate shortcuts, so it does take a beat longer than usual for it to resolve a shortcut. That being said, a URL that doesn't break so easily is usually worth the trade off in performance.

TROUBLESHOOTING Beware the Virtual Page
Short URLs can be misdirected to virtual pages if the virtual page uses the same or similar terminating URL segment. For example, if you use a virtual page to repeat your staff page in the "About" section of the site in addition to its "home," and you use your name for the URL (e.g. crd.lbl.gov/about/my-name), then the short URL will resolve to the virtual page instead of your staff page. This usually doesn’t matter because the content of your staff page will be mirrored by the virtual page. However, it will NOT mirror any subpages you create for projects or publications. Also, your virtual page might be located in a group or project that you don't consider to be your primary home. To avoid this misdirection, please make sure that your own staff page (Biopage) uses your name as the last segment of the URL. For a virtual page, please ensure that the last URL segment is different to avoid this issue (e.g., crd.lbl.gov/about/my-name-2).

TROUBLESHOOTING
Beware the Virtual Page

Short URLs can be misdirected to virtual pages if the virtual page uses the same or similar terminating URL segment.

For example, if you use a virtual page to repeat your staff page in the "About" section of the site in addition to its "home," and you use your name for the URL (e.g. crd.lbl.gov/about/my-name), then the short URL will resolve to the virtual page instead of your staff page. This usually doesn’t matter because the content of your staff page will be mirrored by the virtual page. However, it will NOT mirror any subpages you create for projects or publications. Also, your virtual page might be located in a group or project that you don't consider to be your primary home.

To avoid this misdirection, please make sure that your own staff page (Biopage) uses your name as the last segment of the URL. For a virtual page, please ensure that the last URL segment is different to avoid this issue (e.g., crd.lbl.gov/about/my-name-2).