This section is intended for both site designers and maintainers.

Overview: The address of a page (content, category or product) is called is URL (universal resource location).  Since the system generates the pages dynamically their native address begins with the site name (e.g., https://www.csz.com) followed by the address of the program responsible for generating the page followed by control information (e.g., cgi-bin/complex2/showpage.plx?pid=14).  Not the most friendly name, but it is exact.  Unless the page is deleted this address will always find the page.   However, it is possible to have the system generate an alias address for the page (e.g., https://www.csz.com/Complex_Help/Controlling-a-page-address).  These automatic page addresses can be changed and locked or they may update automatically.  The system will automatically update a sitemap.xml file in the document root of a site.

What pages can be addressed

• Basically all visible pages.  This means for:
  
  • Content pages, not hidden (unless its priority is 1:1) or restricted to members of an authorized group provided the section name does not begin with '~' (e.g., a page in the ~Site-Bits section would be hidden).   Aliases cannot be set for "pages" which are just links to other pages.  This is to keep the search engines happy.
  • Categories,  not hidden or restricted to members of an Authorized Group provided they are either a top level section or appear under at least one non-hidden/restricted category.
  • Products, provided they appear under at least one visible category. 
• Pages can appear only once since search engines discard both pages if duplicates are found.
  
  • This is why pages which are links are not included.
  • If a category or a product appears under two or more different parent categories, only the first listing will have a re-mapped address.  The second occurrence of the category or product will use the old style address. 
  • The system will generate and keep updated the sitemap.xml using only the alias names.

How page addresses are generated

• Whenever a content page becomes active or a category or product becomes visible the system will automatically generate a unique address for it. This address is displayed on the form used to enter the page/category/product.
  
  • For content pages the top level page in a section takes the section name (except for the sites home page which has the address of '/').  For other pages in the section the system uses the section-name/page-title.  Subordinate pages have their titles added after the parent page (e.g., /ComplexHelp/Manage-Pages/Special-Pages).  Note characters other than a-z A-Z 0-9 will be replaced by a hyphen.  Duplicate and leading and trailing hyphens will be removed.
  • For catalog pages a similar approach is used. The catalog is examined in category display order (display priority then category name) starting with the categories which do not have parents.  After each category is examined,  aliases for products under that category have addresses created.
• This process occurs automatically each time a change is made.  If a duplicate name would be generated the system adds '1' to the end, If its still a duplicate this number is incremented until the address is unique.
• You are not stuck with these automatically generated addresses.  There is an Edit link after the automatically generated addresses.  Click on this will display all the addresses that are active with the option of replacing any address and locking it in. The system will automatically substitute hyphens as needed.  If a duplicate address is requested and the other address is locked it will report an error and do nothing.  If competing page is not locked its address will be adjusted.