Within Claromentis, there are many ways within Intranet applications or components on pages to specify URL destinations that will be opened when the user clicks them.
For example, custom URLs are entered when creating:
- Items in the Main menu or Application List
- Bookmarks to external websites or content
- Links under 'Company Links'
- Custom content using the 'link' feature in CK Editor for News, Blog, KB or the text component on Pages.
Relative vs Absolute Links
It is important when entering URL destinations to consider the location at which the content it opens is stored, because this affects how we should best specify its URL in the application or component.
Two types of links exist: relative (shortened URL) and absolute (full URL pathway)
Relative links should be used when specifying a destination within the Intranet. e.g. an application, an Intranet page, a file in the documents application, a form in Infocapture, etc
e.g. Remove the domain name from the URL and only specify the path that remains.
https://hannah102-demo.myintranet.com/pages/company becomes just /pages/company and this is what should be used.
Repeat for other applications or content within the Intranet, and remove everything before the path.
/knowledgebase/articles/49/how-to-request-a-leave-of-absence would open this article
/forms/bugtracker/add would open a new ticket submission in the bug tracker form
Absolute links should be used when specifying a destination outside the Intranet. e.g. a company website, YouTube video, other websites or services your employees use, etc
e.g. The full URL shown in the browser when the content is open, or the full link has been copied from the original website through sharing can be used.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ to open a YouTube video
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/ to open your LinkedIn feed
https://live.easygenerator.com/#/home to open the tool used to create eLearning
Why does this matter?
For content within the Intranet specifically, it's necessary to use the relative link to specify its location.
The relative link does not include the domain name of your site, e.g. the part that specifies www.oursite.com.
Otherwise, if the absolute URL has been used in links to Intranet content and the domain name of your site changes, the links will break because the site's previous domain name will remain specified in them.
It is not possible to capture URLs entered across the site and update them to include the new domain name automatically; instead, rectifying this would be a manual undertaking by your administrators.
What can we do?
To safeguard your site from potential link breakage if the domain name is changed and to prevent the manual work required to rectify this if it did occur, share this guide with all administrators and content creators.
This ensures your administrators and content creators:
1. Are aware of the difference between the link types
2. Understand which type to use when linking to content that is stored within vs outside the Intranet
3. Can apply this advice when they create links to content across applications and components
It's possible that this will not be a perfect process, and some links may be missed and specify the absolute URL for content within the Intranet when the relative URL should be used.
This is not a major issue because broken links can be rectified manually, but we want to reduce the potential number of broken links by preventing them from being created incorrectly in the first place.
Subsequently, best practice is for all administrators and content creators to understand the link types as soon as they take on the Intranet management responsibility and begin creating in the intranet.
Examples
Relative URL
I want to link to an Intranet page in my site's main menu.
Pages content is within the Intranet, so I should use the relative URL when linking it in applications or components.
Subsequently, I will find the absolute URL of my page...
https://hannah102-demo.myintranet.com/pages/compliance
...and I turn it into the relative:
/pages/compliance
This is the URL I use in my menu item:
I have now safeguarded this link from breaking if my site's domain name changes, as the relative part always remains the same.
Repeat this process for other content that you want to link, and this is stored within the Intranet. e.g. News articles, applications, forms, files in the documents application, user profiles etc.
Absolute URL
In my KB article, I want to link to a Google Drive file within the text.
Google Drive content is stored outside of the Intranet, so I should use the absolute URL when linking it in applications or components.
I find the URL for the content in Google Drive and copy this:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dzJ_xmpRLFLdXux211xxxxxxxxx9/edit?usp=drive_link
I then create a link in the KB article body by highlighting the words I want to make a link and clicking the CK Editor link icon...
...next paste the full URL into the appropriate field:
Saving this and the article, the link I have created will successfully open the absolute URL and the file in Google Drive.
This link is not affected by my site's domain name changing, as the content is hosted elsewhere.
Repeat this process in other applications or components where links can be created, and ensure the full pathway is specified for content stored outside the Intranet.
