..  _introduction:

============
Introduction
============

..  _what-it-does:

What it does
============

A relaunch usually changes the page tree, the slugs and often the URL
scheme: :samp:`/leistungen/architektur.html` on the old website becomes
:samp:`/leistungen/architektur` on the new one, :samp:`/referenzen/` becomes
:samp:`/projekte/`. The extension answers one question for every URL of the
old website: what does a visitor get on the new site?

#.  You import the URLs of the old website: its XML sitemap, a list from the
    Google Search Console or a crawler, or any list of URLs and paths.
#.  The extension follows every URL through the new site the way the TYPO3
    frontend would: redirects of EXT:redirects first, then the page router.
#.  For every URL that would end in a 404 it suggests the most likely page of
    the new site, for example the page with the same path without
    :file:`.html`, or the only page with the same name.
#.  You confirm the suggestions, pick another page or ignore the URL. The
    redirects are created in the TYPO3 redirects module, where they can be
    edited like any other redirect.

..  figure:: /Images/ModuleOverview.png
    :alt: The backend module lists the old URLs that need a decision, with a suggested target page for each

    The backend module: old URLs that need a decision, with the suggested
    target pages ticked when they are safe.

..  _features:

Features
========

*   Imports XML sitemaps, sitemap indexes (also gzip compressed), text lists
    and CSV exports.
*   Follows redirect chains, loops, regular expression redirects, redirects
    that respect query parameters and shortcut pages.
*   Treats the old production domain as an alias of the staging domain, so
    redirects for :samp:`www.example.org` are found on
    :samp:`stage.example.org`.
*   Sees the new site like an anonymous visitor: hidden pages, folders and
    access restricted pages count as missing, also when the check runs on the
    command line or for an administrator.
*   Suggests up to three target pages per URL, with a score. Suggestions of 90
    and more are ticked: the old URL has the same path, or its page name
    exists only once on the new site.
*   Fixes broken redirects by pointing them to a new target.
*   Writes the redirects through the DataHandler, with the permissions of the
    editor, stored on the root page of the site like the redirects TYPO3
    creates on slug changes.
*   Exports the list as CSV, also for Excel with German settings.
*   Console commands for imports, checks in deployment pipelines and bulk
    creation of safe redirects.
*   Supports TYPO3 13.4 LTS and 14.3 LTS. Backend in English and German.

..  _what-it-does-not-do:

What it does not do
===================

The check works inside TYPO3 and requests nothing over the network. It does
not see rewrite rules of the web server (for example in :file:`.htaccess`),
and it does not render pages. See :ref:`limitations` for the details.

Suggestions are proposals. Below a score of 90 they are not ticked, and a
person decides.