Redirect deleted page link to a new page

Development
1

Hello all,

As part of Loading... I started working on a design page https://design.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Proposal/Redirectdeletedpagelinktoanewpage

The task refers to the ability to provide a new target when you delete a page, since there could be internal or external links that now point to an empty page.

For this I propose 3 UI directions:

  1. The first proposal is to be consistent with the move / rename of pages. The user will be able to select a new target page, using a page picker, with the options to update the links that point to the deleted page, and also to create an automatic redirect when the old page is accessed. As it is for rename / move, the Update links will be enabled by default, while Create an automatic redirect is optional. If no page is specified, then not action is applied.
    Idea:

    image
    image825×289 21 KB

  2. An idea is to keep the delete process simpler, by only providing the option to update existing internal links to the delete page. As it is for the first option, there will be a page picker to select the new target page, with empty value for no action, and the Update links option, which will be enabled by default.
    CONS : This proposal will not fix the problem of external links (e.g. bookmarks, links from emails), since no redirect will be added. The users will be notified that the page doesn’t exist.
    Idea:

    image
    image877×212 12.9 KB

  3. Similar to proposal 2, an idea will be to keep only the Create an automatic redirect option, also with a page picker and this option enabled by default.
    By providing a redirect, both internal and external links will point now to the new target page, only that the internal links will actually remain the same (which is not clean and could introduce confusion at first)
    Idea:

    image
    image744×207 7.16 KB

Note that I created a prototype design as guidance and some phrases, placeholders may change. Also, for the implementation I only added a few details on the design page, since more could be decided after.

Let me know what you think and if you have suggestions.

Thanks,
Lavinia

2

For me the right option is option 1. It’s the more complete and the more consistent.

Thanks!

3

Note that the UI should make it clear that selecting a new target page is optional.

4

Maybe we could disable the checkboxes if no new target page is selected. This would suggest that there is no action applied without a value, and you can still delete the page, since the delete button is not disabled.

An example for the first option:
backlinks_withoutValue

backlinks_withValue

5

+1 on option 1 with this.

6

+1 for this choice as well.

7

+1 for option 1. You could also hide the “Update links” and “Create automatic redirect” when no target page is selected.