docs-desktop/redirects_generator

This tool uses the definitions.json file to generate a .openpublishing.redirection file. If a .openpublishing.redirection file exists in the folder, it's copied to the output folder and updated and appended to there.

Pass in the file path of a .openpublishing.redirection file, and it'll be updated in-place. e.g. redirs.exe "c:\repos\dotnet\docs-desktop.openpublishing.redirection.json"

The definitions generate two-way redirects between versioned content. The definition file is a json file that has some config at the start:

{
    "Moniker1": "netframeworkdesktop-4.8",
    "RepoPath1": "dotnet-desktop-guide/framework/",
    "Moniker2": "netdesktop-7.0",
    "RepoPath2": "dotnet-desktop-guide/net/",
    "PublishRoot": "/dotnet/desktop/",
    ...
}

There are three settings:

• Moniker

  A moniker represents the ?view= query string value.

• RepoPath

  The repo path represents the folder path to this content in the repo for the Moniker.

• PublishRoot

  This is the root on ms.docs where the content is published to.

Moniker1 and RepoPath1 work together to define a repo path and version. Moniker2 and RepoPath2 work together to define another repo path and version. Redirects between monikers require that the path of article Moniker1 be rewritten in the path as if it exists in the repo where Moniker2 is.

When you use the version switcher to move from moniker netdesktop-7.0 to netframeworkdesktop-4.8, it replaces the ?view= query string, but keeps the same URL file path:

Moniker	URL
Moniker1	https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/desktop/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8
Moniker2	https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/desktop/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms?view=netdesktop-7.0

Based on the publishing path and repo paths of the monikers registered with the build system, you can reverse engineer the path to the source file by continually transforming the URL:

1. Remove the website:

   /dotnet/desktop/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8
   

2. Remove the PublishRoot:

   winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8
   

3. Remove the moniker and append .md

   winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms.md
   

4. Add the RepoPath for both monikers to come up with where the file should exist in the repo:

   Moniker	URL
   RepoPath1	dotnet-desktop-guide/framework/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms.md
   RepoPath2	dotnet-desktop-guide/net/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms.md

If a file exists in both versioned areas of a repo, redirects happen automatically. If a file doesn't exist in one of the versioned folders, say 5.0, you must create a redirect for where the 4.8 version of the file would exist in the 5.0 area. If you then want to be able to redirect in the opposite direction, back from 5.0 to 4.8, you must create another redirect for that scenario too.

There are more examples in the next section.

Entries

The final part of the config file are all the entries for redirection. A redirect entry looks like the following:

{
    "Redirect": "OneWay",
    "SourceUrl": "/dotnet/desktop/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8",
    "TargetUrl": "/dotnet/desktop/winforms/forms/events?view=netdesktop-7.0"
},

The Redirect field represents the type of redirect and can be one of the following:

• OneWay

  This generates a redirect from the SourceUrl to the TargetUrl. The SourceUrl is regenerated based moniker and opposite-moniker's url. For example, if the SourceUrl contained Moniker1 (netframeworkdesktop-4.8), then the URL has ?view=netframeworkdesktop-4.8 stripped from it and it's rewritten in the #2 repo path, RepoPath2:

  {
    "source_path": "dotnet-desktop-guide/net/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms.md",
    "redirect_url": "/dotnet/desktop/winforms/forms/events?view=netdesktop-7.0"
  },
  

• TwoWay

  This mode works the same as OneWay except it creates a redirect, then it swaps the SourceUrl and TargetUrl paths and creates another redirect. This effectively maps two URLs to each other.

  {
    "source_path": "dotnet-desktop-guide/net/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms.md",
    "redirect_url": "/dotnet/desktop/winforms/forms/events?view=netdesktop-7.0"
  },
  {
    "source_path": "dotnet-desktop-guide/framework/forms/events.md",
    "redirect_url": "/dotnet/desktop/winforms/winforms/creating-event-handlers-in-windows-forms?view=netdesktop-7.0"
  },
  

• Normal

  This is similar to OneWay but it doesn't use any reverse-moniker logic processing. As a convenience, this will translate the source url into the source markdown file for you so you don't need to figure out what it is. This is mostly processed just like a normal redirect you create in the redirection file.

• NormalDocId

  This is the same as Normal but it adds the redirect_document_id: true entry to the redirect.