Hello.

I currently have a static html website that I would like to migrate to a CMS.

ExpressionEngine looks good but one thing I really need is the ability to keep the same page URLs for current traffic purposes.

For example, if one page (on my static website) has the url http://sitename.com/something/funny.html and I want to create a similar page in ExpressionEngine, is there any way to keep that same URL?

There’s about 94 pages on the site so if it is possible, is it going to be a long haul?

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks.

Rury.

Generally, a 301 redirect via, say, .htaccess should be sufficient to preserve your pagerank and not break any incoming links, but if you insist, yes it is possible to recreate an existing site structure down to the dot. It will require some familiarity with EE, and is not supported out of the box, as such, but it is certainly possible. I have done it myself on occasion.

Thanks for the speedy reply.

I would like to avoid the redirect if possible and just stick to the ExpressionEngine method. Would you be able to elaborate on how it can be done? Would I need to use any particular modules?

Cheers

Rury, you’d need to use the Pages module. I’ll see if I can find a wiki article on using the Pages module to emulate physical URIs.

It would involve using appropriately named template goups, templates, and url_titles. A few issues are touched upon in this thread. The “Pages” module could be of interest, too.

So, there is no “ExpressionEngine method”, but it can be done.

That would be great. Thanks for the help guys, much appreciated.

i just found this great page on 301 redirect

fyi

Bookmarked that page, rokker. Looks like it could come in handy, cheers.

I’ve PM’d you Ingmar regarding this thread.

Please use regular email (ingmar.greil@ellislab.com) instead. Thank you.

Just mailed you there. Cheers.

Sorry if this has been answered before, but is there a way of customising url’s in EE without having to create a template group with that name? In wordpress this is called a post slug and it allows you to give your post a name.

So for example:

I write a post about 301 redirects.

I can name the post 301-redirects-for-beginners and that will the the url adapated. Does the pages module achieve this in EE?

Think I found the answer this this one.
http://expressionengine.com/downloads/details/pages_module/

“Page” entries can be displayed with virtually any URL desired and take advantage of ExpressionEngine’s powerful Weblog Module.

While it is true that the Pages module can be displayed with almost any URL desired, you’ll probably want to llok into url_titles. Pages is really meant for static pages, not regualr weblog entries.