Canonical API

A brief explanation happens in Search engine optimization (SEO).

In general the system will generate the canonical using the same logic as for cHash.

Note

The canonical API is provided by the optional system extension EXT:seo. You can find information about how to install and use it in the EXT:seo manual.

Excluding arguments from the generation

TYPO3 will fallback to building a URL of current page and appending query strings. It is possible to exclude specific arguments from being appended. This is achieved by adding those arguments to a PHP variable:

EXT:site_package/ext_localconf.php

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['FE']['additionalCanonicalizedUrlParameters'][] = 'example_argument_name';

It is possible to exclude nested arguments:

EXT:site_package/ext_localconf.php

$GLOBALS['TYPO3_CONF_VARS']['FE']['additionalCanonicalizedUrlParameters'][] = 'example_argument_name[second_level]';

Arguments in general should be excluded from cHash as well as additionalCanonicalizedUrlParameters. See the possible options in Caching, regarding excluding arguments from cHash.

The idea behind that is:

If a URL is worth caching (because it has different content) it is worth having a canonical as well.

— https://github.com/TYPO3-Documentation/TYPO3CMS-Reference-CoreApi/pull/1326#issuecomment-788741312

Using an event to define the URL

The process will trigger the event ModifyUrlForCanonicalTagEvent which can be used to set the actual URL to use.