How to validate friendly URLs for web content

Friendly URLs for web content provide human-readable URLs that are easy for users to remember. A friendly URL points to a specific content item that is displayed on a specific portal page. By default, WebSphere® Portal does not check whether a friendly URL addresses an existing content item or not. However, the following scenarios would benefit from validation and customized handling of invalid friendly URLs:

• A user mistypes a friendly URL.
• A user clicks a saved bookmark that points to a portal page or a content item that no longer exists.
• A search engine browses portal pages to update a search index.

If you use friendly URLs for web content, you can configure WebSphere Portal to validate the friendly URL associated with a request. If you enable friendly URL validation, portal assembles a content path by appending the path information to the path of the default content mapping that is defined for the resolved page. Afterward, portal checks whether that content path identifies a content item that is available in the current user context. The friendly URL for web content is valid if the portal finds a content item. Otherwise, portal sends an error response. Using the WebSphere Portal Configuration Service and individual page parameters, you can customize error responses in the following ways:

• Return an HTTP error code along with a localized message.
• Return an HTTP error code and display the resolved page.
• Return an HTTP error code and display the resolved page and render a specific content item.
• Return an HTTP error code and display a specific page.
• Return an HTTP error code and display a specific page that renders a specific content item.