It is important to understand how URLs from your magicscript site (or other content hosted on the Zoo server) will transfer to Drupal. There are steps you can take to make the transition easier for your team, website visitors and search engines.

Keeping your URL

If you are keeping the same "root" URL for your web content (eg. uvm.edu/coolstuff stays uvm.edu/coolstuff in Drupal), the process is fairly straightforward. ETS, working with the Web Team, will point the root URL to Drupal at launch time and all traffic to the URL will now point to Drupal automatically, requiring no action on your part. The content in your Zoo folder (usually the website folder) will still be accessible by logging into Zoo via an SFTP client, however, the content will no longer be viewable in a web browser.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have folders containing stand-alone microsites in your Zoo account that you would like to remain accessible in a web browser after launch time, it is possible to request exceptions. These exceptions should be provided to the Web Team prior to launch when you fill out the Launch Checklist.

Keep in mind, the URLs of interior pages in your old magicscript site will all direct to your "root" page on Drupal (uvm.edu/coolstuff/?Page=programs.html to uvm.edu/coolstuff). For this reason, it is that much more important to provide clear navigation paths to the content within your group. Expect search engines to take days or weeks to reindex your new Drupal content.

Changing URLs

If you've thought about changing your URL to something more user-friendly or appealing, timing the change with your switch to Drupal is a good idea. After your Drupal content is launched, you'll want to redirect your old "root" address to your new one (eg. uvm.edu/coolstuff to uvm.edu/cooler_stuff). You can do it yourself via an .htaccess file in the root of your web folder on Zoo.

Note, .htaccess files must be created and edited with a simple text editor and can contain no formatting. If you are not familiar with working with these kinds of files, you should ask for assistance from someone with IT or web development experience.

Keep in mind, the URLs of interior pages in your old magicscript site will all direct to your "root" page on Drupal (uvm.edu/~coolstff/?Page=programs.html to uvm.edu/coolstuff). For this reason, it is that even more important to provide clear navigation paths to the content within your group. Expect search engines to take days or weeks to reindex your new Drupal content.

Simple Redirect without Exceptions

This line in your .htaccess file will redirect all links within your old site to your new Drupal content.

  • Redirect 301 /~mydept http://www.uvm.edu/myaddress

Redirect with Exceptions

When your site URL has changed AND you need a redirect with exceptions, the .htaccess file is a little more complicated and will have three or more lines.

  • First line: RewriteEngine on

  • A new line for each exception in the form of (where ‘abc’ is a directory exception):  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/abc

  • Last line points to the new URL for the ‘root’ site on Drupal for all other URL patterns: RewriteRule .* http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl

The completed redirect with additional exceptions looks like:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/abc
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/additonal2
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/addtional3
RewriteRule /oldurl http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl

Multi-Level Redirect with Exceptions

If you need to redirect sub-directories within your old site to multiple new URLs in Drupal and still maintain one or more directories on Zoo, you'll need to combine multiple rewrite conditions and rules. Example:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/abc
RewriteRule ^xyz http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl/xyz [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/abc
RewriteRule ^123 http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl/123 [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/abc
RewriteRule .* http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl [L]

In the above example, the 'abc' directory will still be available on Zoo, whereas the 'xyz' and '123' driectories will point to the new URLs of http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl/xyz and http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl/123 respectively with all other URLs directing to http://www.uvm.edu/mynewurl. Note, the redirecting directories are preceded by the '^' character and the exception directory (or directories) is repeated before each RewriteRule.

Need additional help?

Stop by our web team help hours if you need additional help putting together your redirect files.