HTML Titles

This topic describes how HTML titles are formulated and how to maintain friendly URLs.

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HTML Titles and Friendly URLs

For web pages and articles, the last part of a friendly URL, the title of the page/article itself, is used as the title in the title bar of the browser to identify the page/article. This title also appears in the Windows task bar when the browser is minimized. For pages/articles that are trying to claim an active friendly URL, the same title is used in the title bar, not the friendly URL that is assigned to it by XperienCentral. For example, if the friendly URL "Contact.htm" is claimed by a page/article, in the title bar of the browser the title "Contact" is used. However, if another page/article is assigned the friendly URL "Contact-1.htm", the title of "Contact-1.htm" in the browser will also be "Contact".

Explicitly Setting the HTML Title

By default, XperienCentral uses the title of pages/articles in the <title> HTML tag. If you want to override the default title, you can do so by adding a different HTML title that will be used for the page/article. To override the HTML title of a page/article, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the page/article whose HTML title you want to override.
2. Open the Actions > Properties > Meta keywords panel.
3. In the "HTML title" box, enter the text that you want to display in the title bar of the browser for the page/article.

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Using Alternate URL Paths

For web pages, you can specify an alternate URL path that is used in the active friendly URL. This allows you to reference the web page via a path that does not necessarily exist in your website's navigation structure. Just as the friendly URL for a page is constructed using the relative path (based on the navigation tree) plus the title of the page, the friendly URL of a page with an alternate URL path is constructed using the alternate URL path plus the title of the page. The alternate URL path begins after the '/web' part of the friendly URL.

To assign an alternate URL path to a web page, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the page in the Site Structure Widget.
2. Click the Actions icon.
3. Click the [SEO] tab.
4. In the "Alternate URL Path" text box, enter the URL to use in the friendly URL for the page. The URL path must begin with a forward slash (/) and use a forward slash to separate each level.
5. Click [Apply] and then [Close].

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URL Title Standardization

In XperienCentral, a limited set of characters is allowed in a URL. When you create a new item, its friendly URL title is standardized, meaning that the text entered for the title is simplified if it contains special characters in order to ensure that the URL is valid. When standardizing a URL, XperienCentral applies the following rules:

• Converts all special characters containing diacritical marks (for example, é and ë) to the version of the letter without diacritical marks.
• Converts all uppercase letters to lowercase.
• Deletes all other extended characters other than uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, and periods.

This process ensures that the URL titles of items are valid and are able to be resolved by web browsers. As a result of standardizing, it is possible for content items to have conflicting friendly URL titles even if the titles as they appear in XperienCentral are clearly different. In this case, the friendly URL conflict is resolved as described in How Friendly URLs are Constructed.

The following are examples of friendly URL conflicts as a result of URL standardizing.

For a complete list of character mapping conversions that result from URL standardization, see Special Character Conversion Table.

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Maintaining the URL History of Pages and Content Items

The friendly URL of pages and content items is based on its designated title (URL title, navigation title, or the title of the page or content item). When an item is first created, it is assigned a friendly URL, also known as the active friendly URL. If a page is moved or renamed, the active friendly URL also changes, however, the previously active friendly URL is still claimed by the item.

For example, on September 1, 2012, a page with the title "XperienCentral" is created under the home page. This page is available at the friendly URL "/GX-XperienCentral.htm". On September 8, 2012, the page title is changed to "Products", which makes the page also available at the URL "/Products.htm" (which is now the active URL). As a result, from September 8, 2012, the page can be accessed through two URLs: "GX-XperienCentral.htm" and "Products.htm". In this case, because the active URL for the page is now "Products.htm", any links to "GX-XperienCentral.htm" are automatically redirected to "Products.htm". The advantage of this system is that the old URL ("/GX-XperienCentral.htm") remains available so that references from links to the previous name of the page still work.

A URL that was at any time assigned to a page or content item remains tied to it and the item still has the claim on that friendly URL which means that other items cannot use it because it is still in use (as a redirect). In XperienCentral you can view and manage the URL history of pages and content items. This makes it possible to see which friendly URLs are being claimed by a page/content item and also to release claimed URLs that you want reuse elsewhere. To view the URL history of a page or content item, follow these steps:

1. Click a page in the navigation tree to select it or select the content item in the Content Repository.
2. Select "Edit Properties" from the Actions menu.
3. Click the [SEO] tab.

Deleting URLs from a Page or Media Item's URL History

If you want to use a URL that another page or content item has a claim to but is not actively using, you have to delete the URL from the 'also available at' list for the page or content item claiming the desired URL in order to release it

Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the content item claiming the friendly URL you want to use.
2. Navigate to content item properties.
3. Click the SEO tab.
4. Click the box next to "Delete" to select the URL(s) that you want to release,
5. Click [Apply]. The friendly URL is deleted (released).
6. Click [Close]. You can now use the friendly URL for another page or content item.

Releasing Claimed Friendly URLs

If you want to release the friendly URL from a page or content item that is currently claiming it in order to use it elsewhere, the approach depends on whether the page or content item is actively using the friendly URL or whether the URL is claimed by the page or content item in its URL history.

There are two ways to release the claimed friendly URL from a page or content item in order to use it elsewhere. You can either delete the page/content item completely, which immediately frees up the friendly URL, or you can rename the page or content item claiming the active URL and then remove the friendly URL from the URL history of the renamed page. Follow these steps:

Deleting the Page or Content Item

1. For a page, right-click it in the navigation tree and select "Delete".
2. For a content item, select it in the list of items in the Content Repository and click [Delete]. The friendly URL of the deleted page or content item is now available (has been released).

Renaming the Page or Content Item

1. Navigate to the page in the navigation tree or to the content item in the Content Repository whose active friendly URL you want to release.
2. Rename the title (URL, navigation or page) that is responsible for the claim on the friendly URL to something else.
3. Navigate to content item properties.
4. Click the SEO tab.
5. Follow the steps for deleting claimed friendly URLs as described in the section  Deleting a URL From a Page or Media Item's URL History. The friendly URL is now released and can be used by another page or content item.

Releasing a Page or Content Item's Claim on a URL

Pages and content items can claim more than one friendly URL, however, only one of them is active at one time. The non-active URLs act as redirects to the active friendly URL. If you want to release the non-active URLs of a page or content item in order to use it elsewhere, follow the steps below.

1. Navigate to the page in the navigation tree or to the content item in the Content Repository whose active friendly URL you want to release.
2. Navigate to content item properties.
3. Click the SEO tab.
4. Follow the steps for deleting claimed friendly URLs as described in  Deleting a URL From a Page or Media Item's URL History. The friendly URL is now released and can be used by another page or content item.

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