Manual:Short URL overview


 * Note: The original Manual:Short URL has become so complex I cannot clean it up. So I have starting the below Short URL overview with no how tos on this page but instead separate pages for discrete solutions, named and linked to below as subpages of Manual:Short URL. Eventually this Manual:Short URL overview may be moved to Manual:Short URL, replacing it once that one is refactored into subpages per below pagenaming scheme. Welcome to help! :-) --Rogerhc 06:42, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Overview of how to configure short URLs in MediaWiki and related considerations.

According to Tim Berners-Lee, good URLs should never change. Short URLs that hide PHP mechanics from the browser location bar for normal pages are good user interface.

These short URLS are not implemented in MediaWiki by default because they are done in concert with Web server configurations that can get complicated and may vary depending on the specific operating system and Web server being used, their features, file structure and URL style choices that vary between websites.

MediaWiki default to URLs like,

Short URLs can be like,

and other similarly readable, writable and sensible URLs. How to do this gets complicated fast. So how tos will be on separate pages linked to below.

Short URL how tos
Welcome to create how to solution pages and link to them below. Please use a sensible name for the page, one that fits in with below names, eg Manual:Short URL/wiki/Page title -- name your solution here. When each unique solution has its own page, readers can skip complexity they do not want. Readable wiki pages are maintainable wiki pages.

Keep it simple, readable, maintainable -- separate page per separate solution.

Example.com/Page_title
How to do example.com/Page_title style URLs
 * Manual:Short URL/Page title -- EASY
 * Manual:Short URL/Page title -- solution xxx
 * Manual:Short URL/Page title -- solution yyy
 * Manual:Short URL/Page title -- solution zzz

Example.com/wiki/Page_title
How to do example.com/wiki/Page_title style URLs
 * Manual:Short URL/wiki/Page title -- EASY
 * Manual:Short URL/wiki/Page title -- PHP as a CGI module, no root access
 * Manual:Short URL/wiki/Page title -- solution yyy
 * Manual:Short URL/wiki/Page title -- solution zzz

Wiki.example.com/Page_title
How to do wiki.example.com/Page_title style URLs
 * Manual:Short URL/wiki.example.com/Page_title -- EASY ?