Rules

The Rules page in Redirectify allows you to create rules for automatic redirect creation. Each rule consists of a ‘pattern’ to match imported paths by, and a ‘target path’ which will be used to create a redirect for any path that matches the pattern. Rules are applied to all paths imported into the app whether manually (uploaded from a CSV file) or via live or proactive tracking.

With cleverly set up rules for automation, you may very rarely need to enter the app to deal with errors manually!

Patterns

The first field in a rule is the ‘pattern’ to match paths by. As with filters, there are two types of patterns; Wildcard and the more advanced Regexp (short for ‘regular expression’). Unlike filters, both wildcard and regexp patterns must match the full path from beginning to end.

Wildcard patterns

Wildcard patterns are the easiest to use. They make use the ‘*’ character as a wildcard matching any string of text. For example, a rule with the pattern

/blogs/old-name/*

-would match each of the following paths:

/blogs/old-name/meet-the-team
/blogs/old-name/our-story
/blogs/old-name/how-we-support-local-businesses

Rules must match the full path from beginning to end. Therefore, if you want to match only part of a path you should surround the pattern with ‘*’ on each side. The pattern

*support*

-would match any path containing (anywhere) the word ‘support’.

Regexp patterns

Regular expressions are very powerful, but quite a complex topic. Rather than trying to cover them here, you can learn the basics fairly quickly through this guide.

Target paths

The second field in a rule is the target path to redirect to if a rule pattern matches. Within the target path, you can back reference parts of the original pattern. In the case of wildcard patterns, this means any parts matched by a wildcard character ‘*’, whereas for regexp patterns, capture groups may be referenced. Each part is referenced in the order it appears by a backslash followed by a number. For example, ‘\1’ references the first instance, while ‘\2’ references the second and so on. For consistency with ‘replacements’ described below, you may also choose to use the form ‘{1}’ in place of ‘\1’. 

For example, given the wildcard pattern

/blogs/old-name/*

You might want to redirect all articles under /blogs/old-name to /blogs/new-name. To achieve this, you could use the target path

/blogs/new-name/\1

Here, ‘\1’ will be substituted for the article from the old path in any redirect that is created. 

In case you’re using regexp patterns, the equivalent pattern (using a capture group) would be

/blogs/old-name/(.*)

The target path can remain the same as for the wildcard example above.

Replacements

To cover certain use cases not possible otherwise, you can specify special ‘replacements’ in your target path. Replacements are formed by a name surrounded by curly braces, for example ‘{search}’.

The {search} replacement

This replacement takes the handle (the last part of the URL) of a collection, product, etc., and replaces all ‘-’ with ‘+’. A ‘+’ is treated as a space character by the browser. This replacement is intended to be used in a target path like

/search?q={search}

Given a path like

/collections/example/products/example-product

-the resulting redirect

/search?q=example+product

-will redirect to your store’s search page, with the search term ‘example product’.

Examples

Say you wanted to redirect all deleted product paths nested under collections to the base collection path, you could use a wildcard pattern like

/collections/*/products/*

-and target

/collections/\1

In combination with proactive tracking, using this rule will mean you never need to open the app to manually create redirects after you delete a product.

Things to note

In the browser

Rules even apply in the browser. When a visitor stumbles across an undiscovered 404 page, they will be redirected automatically by the browser if there is a matching rule. Live tracking will then pick up the error and a permanent redirect will be created based on the rule.

Please note that for this behaviour to function, we need to make all rule definitions publicly accessible.

Existing paths

Any existing paths in your list that match at the time you save your rules will automatically be redirected.

What if more than one rule matches a path?

If more than one rule matches an imported path, the first matching rule will be used to create a redirect.

Still need help?

Just send us a message explaining what you’re trying to achieve. We’re happy to help you get set up!