Using URL Aliases
What is a URL Alias?
A URL alias - also known as a path - is the text that appears after the .edu/ portion of your Drupal site's URL. Every Drupal page will have at least one URL alias. For example:
If the URL is: drupal.calpoly.edu/user-guides
The URL alias (or path) is: user-guides
How Do I Edit a URL Alias?
By default, Drupal will automatically generate a URL alias based on your page's title. You can customize your URL alias by selecting the URL alias option near the bottom of the Edit Draft page, un-checking the Generate Automatic URL Alias box, and then editing the text field.
Can I Have Multiple URL Aliases For A Single Page?
Yes! The following steps can be used to create additional URL aliases that point to the same page (if you simply want to edit the existing alias, do that from the URL path settings section).
- Go to Configuration, then click URL Aliases under the Search and Metadata section.
- Click +Add Alias
- The system path is the page you will be linking to. You can start typing the title of your target page here and Drupal will attempt to auto-complete for you. Select the correct page from the list that appears and Drupal will insert the node ID number.
- Path alias is where you define the URL that will take users to the page you selected in the previous step. You only need to enter the path, as your site domain is included.
- Click Save.
There are a variety of possible reasons, but a common use case is marketing. If you want to create an additional URL that's short and simple to put on a flyer, for example, you can use these steps to facilitate that.
This page's default URL is longer, but we've also created a shorter and cleaner URL that we can advertise with. Both of the below URLs will direct you to this page: drupal.calpoly.edu/url-aliases
drupal.calpoly.edu/content/user-guides/something-random/url-aliases
