Can I customize a URL to a page within Confluence?
Asked by K. M. Peterson:

Hi,

As we go to using Confluence for documentation for our general user base, I've run into something that seems either like I'm unique or just not asking the question the right way, so I apologize if this has been answered already.

The question is this: we'd like to have a more friendly way to refer users to particular pages in Confluence from external sources. So, for example, our confluence being at <https://wiki.example.com> and we have our outages page which is at /display/OPS/Current+Outages what I'm looking for is some way of generating a URL like <https://wiki.example.com/outages> - which we can include in documentation, and presumably hides the internal processing of the service as much as possible. I know I can do this with redirects in Apache, but it seemed obvious that someone else would have answered this question if there's a better way to do it.

This wouldn't be used very often, it's just that for those viewing URLs it seems easier to remember (or identify from browser history) than the /display path. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!


Answers:
author: David Falby
body: I'm interested in this idea and would like to upvote this as an enhancement request. Being new here, I am unfamiliar with where enhancement requests are submitted and how they are handled. Is there a better method, or is this discussion the best method?


author: Felipe Carasso
body: Sorry to "me too", but both the long and short URLs provided by default for Confluence pages are quite ugly. They work fine if the person can click on them, but if the idea is to **share something that somebody will have to type, like in a video or audio clip**, they don't do.

Would you consider allowing document editors to create URL aliases to their documents? Something like this, but hopefully less restricted:

<https://wiki.bitvoodoo.ch/display/public/BVTHEME/Page+Alias>

Thank you,

Felipe


author: Scott Edwards
body: This request is very important. Exchanging these obfuscated URL's because someone used a special character in a page title is just silly. Recommending a URL Shortener is like saying "not our problem". This would improve the usability of Confluence within the enterprise as people are often sharing links on other platforms.


author: Jim Doyle
body: "Me too" answer for me, too. This would basically be "vanity URLs" for Confluence pages.

Currently (Confluence Server 6.6.13) there are 3 types of URLs we can use:

* Title URL /display/\<spacekey\>/\<URI encoded title\>
* Page ID URL /pages/viewpage.action?pageId=xxx
* Tiny URL /x/oy4TWa

Title URL is the only one you can control, but you can use it and control it only if you're willing to make the page title fit Confluence's URL restrictions and match what you want the URL to be. E.g. for a FAQ page like "How do I use Confluence?" you immediately have to decide whether to drop the question mark and start confusing readers.

What's the process to get Atlassian to create an enhancement ticket?


author: Tate Shepherd
body: Would also like to see this feature supported please


author: Serguei Vinokour
body: I support the request and do not understand why this is such a big deal to have a custom link or rules to generate links without '+'. The biggest issue we have that the links are changed when the titles are changed. Is this exist as requested feature?


author: Steve Gerstner [bridgingIT]
body: You can't but, you can use the tiny link: <https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/links-776656293.html#Links-LinktoConfluencepagesfromotherwebsites>

comments: author: K. M. Peterson
body: Thanks, Steve! That isn't what I was hoping to hear, but I guess the idea of a URL as containing information that end-users might understand isn't all that popular.


author: Tboily
body: I am looking for the same thing, have you found anything? thanks


Tags: confluence-administration