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Wiki source code of Short XWiki URLs

Version 60.8 by Ecaterina Moraru (Valica) on 2017/09/06
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1 {{box cssClass="floatinginfobox" title="**Contents**"}}
2 {{toc/}}
3 {{/box}}
4
5 This tutorial shows you how to tune your XWiki platform by replacing the default URL scheme with a shorter scheme.
6
7 {{info}}
8 A short URL is an URL without the ##xwiki/bin/view## parts.
9 {{/info}}
10
11 = I. Application name =
12
13 The ##/xwiki/## part of the URL is the application name. It identifies the application that should process the request, and it allows a container to host more than one application. To change it you must refer to your container's documentation and find how to map the context path of a web application. For example on Tomcat it's enough to simply deploy the XWiki webapp in the ##webapps## directory, in a sub directory named after the application name you wish to use (e.g. ##webapps/myappname##).
14
15 == Deploying as ROOT ==
16
17 A special case is when deploying XWiki as the ROOT application, which actually allows the application name part to be empty, so an URL can take the form ##server.com/bin/view/Space/Document##.
18
19 Achieving this depends on the container, as there's no standard regarding the ROOT application (Refer to your container's documentation for more details).
20
21 Some examples:
22
23 * In Tomcat, with the default configuration, all it takes is to deploy the XWiki web application in ##webapps##, in a sub directory named ##ROOT## (i.e. ##webapps/ROOT##).
24 * In Jetty, with the default configuration, all it takes is to deploy the XWiki web application in ##webapps##, in a sub directory named ##root##. Note that if you're using the Standalone distribution (which packages Jetty and HSQLDB) then you'll also need to:
25 ** Remove the existing ##webapps/root## directory which contains a redirect Servlet that automatically redirects root URLs to the ##xwiki## context. You won't need that anymore.
26 ** Rename the existing ##webapps/xwiki## directory into ##webapps/root##.
27 ** Remove the ##jetty/contexts/xwiki.xml## file and thus keep only the ##jetty/contexts/root.xml## file. Otherwise you'll get a warning in the console.
28
29 In addition, starting with XWiki 6.2.8/6.4.3/7.0 you must tell XWiki that it's deployed as ROOT by setting the ##xwiki.webapppath## to empty in your ##xwiki.cfg## configuration file as in:
30
31 {{code language="none"}}
32 xwiki.webapppath=
33 {{/code}}
34
35 The reason is that XWiki cannot guess the webapp context from the URL in this case. This seemed to work on previous versions but it was actually leading to errors from time to time, depending on what URL was used when doing the first request on the XWiki instance.
36
37 === When using the XWiki Debian Package ===
38
39 See [[Installation using Debian (.DEB) packages>>platform:Documentation.AdminGuide.Installation.InstallationViaAPT.WebHome||anchor="HXWikiasrootwebapp28shortURLs29"]].
40
41 = II. Servlet mapping name =
42
43 The second part is the hardest part to remove. It identifies the servlet that should process the page, which, for ##/bin/##, is the Struts servlet. Generically speaking, to get rid of ##/bin/##, you need to configure your system so that URLs matching ##/*## are mapped to the Struts Servlet (by default only ##/bin/*## URLs are mapped to the Struts Servlet).
44
45 However you need to be careful that the following prefixes do NOT go through the Struts Servlet (see your ##web.xml## to check their current mappings):
46
47 * ##/resources/*## and ##/skins/*##: Statically served resources. These need to be served directly as static resources.
48 * ##/rest/*##: REST resources, served by the XWiki REST Servlet
49 * ##/xmlrpc/*##: XML-RPC resources, served by the XWiki XMLRPC Servlet {{warning}}Not part of XE anymore since 7.3{{/warning}}
50 * ##/resources/~*~*/*.gwtrpc##: GWT-RPC calls, served by the XWiki GWT Servlet
51 * ##/webdav/*##: WebDav calls, served by the XWiki WebDAV Servlet
52 * ##/XWikiService##: Another XWiki GWT Servlet
53 * ##/redirect##: The XWiki Redirect Servlet used to redirect to the home page when no page is specified in the URL
54
55 There are various alternate to achieve this:
56
57 {{toc scope="local"/}}
58
59 {{info}}
60 You might be tempted to configure just your XWiki's ##web.xml## file [[but this won't work>>ShortURLsInvalid]].
61 {{/info}}
62
63 == UrlRewriteFilter ==
64
65 {{info}}
66 This is the simplest solution of all but you'll need XWiki 5.2+ because of [[this issue that was fixed in XWiki 5.2>>https://jira.xwiki.org/browse/XWIKI-9430]].
67 {{/info}}
68
69 "UrlRewriteFilter" is a [[framework offering a Servlet Filter>>http://www.tuckey.org/urlrewrite/]] allowing to rewrite URLs.
70
71 Install steps:
72
73 1. [[Download the JAR>>http://www.tuckey.org/urlrewrite/]] and put it in ##WEB-INF/lib##
74 1. Edit your ##WEB-INF/web.xml## and add the ##<filter>## and ##filter-mapping## definitions [[as documented>>http://www.tuckey.org/urlrewrite/]]
75 1. Drop the following content in a file at ##WEB-INF/urlrewrite.xml##:(((
76 {{code language="xml"}}
77 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
78 <!DOCTYPE urlrewrite PUBLIC "-//tuckey.org//DTD UrlRewrite 4.0//EN"
79 "http://www.tuckey.org/res/dtds/urlrewrite4.0.dtd">
80 <urlrewrite decode-using="null">
81
82 <rule>
83 <note>
84 Ensure that URLs ending with .gwtrpc are not modified.
85 </note>
86 <from>^/(.*)\.gwtrpc$</from>
87 <to type="forward" last="true">-</to>
88 </rule>
89
90 <rule>
91 <note>
92 Ensure that URLs that must not be served by the Struts Servlet are not modified.
93 </note>
94 <from>^/((bin|resources|skins|rest|webdav|xmlrpc|wiki|webjars)/(.*)|robots\.txt)$</from>
95 <to type="forward" last="true">-</to>
96 </rule>
97
98 <rule>
99 <note>
100 For all other URLs we prepend the "/bin/" prefix so that they get routed to the XWiki Action Servlet.
101 </note>
102 <from>^/(.*)$</from>
103 <to type="forward">/bin/$1</to>
104 </rule>
105
106 <outbound-rule>
107 <note>
108 Rewrite outbound URLs to remove the "/bin" part when there are two paths after it.
109 </note>
110 <from>/bin/(.*)/(.*)$</from>
111 <to>/$1/$2</to>
112 </outbound-rule>
113
114 <outbound-rule>
115 <note>
116 Rewrite outbound URLs to remove the "/bin" part when there's a single path after it.
117 </note>
118 <from>/bin/(.*)$</from>
119 <to>/$1</to>
120 </outbound-rule>
121
122 <outbound-rule>
123 <note>
124 Rewrite outbound URLs to remove the "/bin" part it's the last path.
125 </note>
126 <from>/bin$</from>
127 <to>/</to>
128 </outbound-rule>
129
130 </urlrewrite>
131 {{/code}}
132 )))
133
134 **Note**: for debugging of URL Rewrite filter, set the ##logLevel## parameter as described in http://urlrewritefilter.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src/doc/manual/4.0/index.html#filterparams (using the value ##sysout:DEBUG##, the logs can be read in tomcat logs).
135
136 == Apache ==
137
138 Strategy:
139
140 * Tell Apache that ##/skins## and ##/resources## URLs (except for ##/resources/~*~*/*.gwtrpc## ones) are served statically so that they don't go through the Servlet container
141 * Configure ##web.xml## so that ##/*## URLs go through the Struts Servlet and so that ##/resources/~*~*/*.gwtrpc## URLs go through the GWT Servlet
142 * Tell XWiki to not generate URLs with ##bin## in the path
143
144 Configuration steps:
145
146 * Setup the following Apache configuration:(((
147 {{code language="apache"}}
148 Alias /skins /usr/local/xwiki/skins
149 Alias /resources /usr/local/xwiki/resources
150
151 RewriteEngine on
152
153 RewriteRule ^/+skins - [L]
154 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.gwtrpc$
155 RewriteRule ^/+resources($|/.*) - [L]
156
157 RewriteRule .* http://localhost:8080%{REQUEST_URI} [P,L]
158 ProxyPassReverse / http://localhost:8080/
159 {{/code}}
160 )))
161 * Edit ##web.xml## and add:(((
162 {{code language="xml"}}
163 <servlet-mapping>
164 <servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
165 <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
166 </servlet-mapping>
167 {{/code}}
168 )))
169 * Edit ##web.xml## and replace the existing mapping:(((
170 {{code language="xml"}}
171 <servlet-mapping>
172 <servlet-name>gwtrpc</servlet-name>
173 <url-pattern>*.gwtrpc</url-pattern>
174 </servlet-mapping>
175 {{/code}}
176
177 by
178
179 {{code language="xml"}}
180 <servlet-mapping>
181 <servlet-name>gwtrpc</servlet-name>
182 <url-pattern>/resources/*</url-pattern>
183 </servlet-mapping>
184 {{/code}}
185 )))
186 * Add the following in ##xwiki.cfg## (empty value after the equal sign):(((
187 {{code language="none"}}
188 xwiki.defaultservletpath=
189 {{/code}}
190 )))
191 * {{info}}Only for XWiki 5.2+{{/info}} Add the following in ##xwiki.properties## (empty value after the equal sign):(((
192 {{code language="none"}}
193 url.standard.getEntityPathPrefix=
194 {{/code}}
195 )))
196
197 {{warning}}
198 There's a regression in XWiki 5.1 that will prevent this to work correctly. To overcome it, we recommend that you upgrade to XWiki 5.2. If you cannot, you could do the following:
199 * Remove the 3 ##xwiki-platform-url-*## JARs you have in your ##WEB-INF/lib## directory and instead add the following:
200 ** http://maven.xwiki.org/releases/org/xwiki/platform/xwiki-platform-url-api/5.2-milestone-2/xwiki-platform-url-api-5.2-milestone-2.jar
201 ** http://maven.xwiki.org/releases/org/xwiki/platform/xwiki-platform-url-container/5.2-milestone-2/xwiki-platform-url-container-5.2-milestone-2.jar
202 ** http://maven.xwiki.org/releases/org/xwiki/platform/xwiki-platform-url-standard/5.2-milestone-2/xwiki-platform-url-standard-5.2-milestone-2.jar
203 * Edit your ##xwiki.properties## file and add (no value after the equal sign):(((
204 {{code}}
205 url.standard.entityPathPrefix=
206 {{/code}}
207 )))
208 {{/warning}}
209
210
211 = III. Struts action name =
212
213 The third part, ##/view/##, identifies the struts action that should process a request. So this tells what we want to do with the document, ##/view/## it, ##/edit/## it or ##/delete/## it, for example.
214
215 It's possible to configure XWiki to allow omitting this action when you wish to imply ##view## and also to have XWiki generate URLs without the ##view## action. This is achieved by editing ##xwiki.cfg## and setting {{code language="none"}}xwiki.showviewaction=0{{/code}}.
216
217 {{info}}
218 Before XWiki 7.2 and Nested Pages, XWiki was supporting dropping ##view## in the URL without changing the configuration. However this was broken in 7.2 in order to support Nested Pages.
219 {{/info}}
220
221 = IV. Error Page =
222
223 At the ##WEB-INF/web.xml##, the ##location## of the 404 error code needs to be changed accordingly. For example:
224
225 {{code language="xml"}}
226 <error-page>
227 <error-code>404</error-code>
228 <!--<location>/xwiki/bin/view/Main/DocumentDoesNotExist</location>-->
229 <location>/bin/Main/DocumentDoesNotExist</location>
230 </error-page>
231 {{/code}}
232
233 = V. Conclusion =
234
235 After performing all these changes, you should be able to access documents with URLs like:
236
237 * server.com/Space/Document
238 * server.com/Space/ (pointing to Space.WebHome)
239 * server.com/Document (pointing to Main.Document)
240 * server.com/ will show Main.WebHome, without any redirect.
241
242 As a bonus, these changes are backwards compatible, meaning that any currently working URL will also work with these changes performed, so you won't have any broken bookmarks.
243
244
245 = Other solutions =
246
247 Some XWiki users have contributed other solutions but they've not been verified by a XWiki Development Team member at this stage so use at your own risk ;)
248
249 * [[Lighttpd + Jetty>>platform:Main.ShortURLsLighttpdJetty]]
250 * [[Apache + Tomcat>>http://odo.lv/Recipes/XWikiShortURLs?language=en]]

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