Defining shortcuts

iMIS supports the ability to define friendly URL shortcuts, so that an easy-to-remember URL redirects to a specific page. You can create these shortcuts for any of your websites and link the shortcuts to a URL or content record.

  1. In the Staff site, go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage shortcuts.
  2. Click Add new.
  3. Provide values for the shortcut URL:
    1. Select the website you are creating a shortcut for in the For Websites drop-down list.
    2. Select the shortcut you want to use in the Shortcut drop-down list, or enter a new Shortcut name. The Shortcut name should not be the same as the name of a website or a top-level folder in Page Builder.

      3. Note: Do not name a new shortcut Admin.

    3. Enter the URL or content record in the URL or Content Record field.
    4. Enter a description of the shortcut in the Description field.
  4. Click Save.
  5. You can click the Shortcut to test the link.

For example, create an Events shortcut that points to the Conference List page. You can do this either by entering the URL to the page (~/Events/Conferences/ConferenceList.aspx) or by selecting the content record (@/Events/Conferences/ConferenceList). After inserting the shortcut, the link www.yourwebsite/Events automatically displays www.yourwebsite/Events/Conferences/ConferenceList.aspx.

By default, shortcuts apply to all of your websites. For example, if you define an Events shortcut for all sites, the shortcut always displays the same content record, regardless of which website the user is visiting, www.yourwebsite/events or www.otherwebsite/events. But you can also define shortcuts for a specific site. For example, you might want your mobile website to display a different content record for www.mobilesite/events. In that case, select your mobile site from the ForWebsite drop-down list and point the Events shortcut to the content record you prefer.

Note: System shortcuts used in the Quick Start Sites cannot be edited or deleted. Shortcuts included in the product for All Sites behave as defaults shortcuts. They cannot be deleted because they are used by content items, but they can be edited to point to different content.

Note: Your shortcuts will not be overwritten during upgrade.

These fields control the properties of shortcut URLs that are defined in the system.

  1. In the Staff site, go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage shortcuts.
  2. Do one of the following:
    • Click Add New.
    • Click Edit selected to an existing, selected shortcut.

    The following configuration options are available:

    • For Websites — The All Sites option applies the shortcut to all websites in the system. Select a specific site to only apply the shortcut to a single website. If you enter an iMIS URL for the shortcut, it's important to ensure that all of your sites have the specified relative navigation item path in their respective sitemaps.
    • Shortcut — The name of the shortcut. Do not enter the name of an existing folder path for the website.
    • URL or Content Record — Enter a URL or select a content record to display when a user navigates to the shortcut. If you enter a URL, replace the site’s root URL with ~, for example ~/Events/Conferences/ConferenceList.aspx.
    • URL Parameters - You can tell the URL to open on a specific section of the page. For example, say you want event dashboards to open on the Showcase tab by default. In the URL Parameters field, enter Event_Dashboard=1.
    • Description (optional) — Enter a description for the shortcut.

When someone visits your website, iMIS uses a URL Rewriter to determine which page to display as they navigate your site. The Rewriter parses the URL and then looks for a matching definition for the following elements, which are resolved in the following order:

  1. Virtual directory name.
  2. Website URL:
    1. Go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage websites.
    2. Select a website.
    3. See the value for the URL Name of this Website field.
  3. Links to a content folder that contains a content record with a Publish File Name of Default.
  4. URL shortcuts for a particular website:
    1. Go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage shortcuts.
    2. See the value for the Shortcut field.
  5. URL shortcuts set up for All sites:
    1. Go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage shortcuts.
    2. See the value for the Shortcut field.
  6. Navigation path:
    1. Go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage sitemaps.
    2. Select a navigation item.
    3. (Properties tab) See the value for the Content or URL to Link to field.
  7. Navigation codes:
    1. Go to RiSE > Site Builder > Manage sitemaps.
    2. Select a navigation item.
    3. (Properties tab) See the value for the Navigation Code field.

For example, consider the URL http://mysite.com/mbr/events. If you have a URL shortcut named events and a navigation code named events, the page associated with the URL shortcut is rendered, instead of the page associated with the navigation code.