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WEB SERVICES > WEBMASTER LOCKER > HOW TO MAKE AND USE A REDIRECT

How To Make and Use a Redirect
 

Purpose
A redirect is a set of instructions to the server to automatically send the site visitor to a new URL defined in the redirect. It is useful for getting site visitors to your pages after the directory or page name has changed. It avoids the site visitor getting a "404 Page Not Found" when using an old bookmark or a link referencing the former page name. The redirect can be set to process immediately, or put on a timer delay in order to display a message that the site has moved as well as its new location. As we move to dynamic page content, our home page names are changing from index.html to index.shtm. The redirect ensures that site visitors will be able to get to the new pages.

Users

  • The webmaster creates a redirect and names it the same as the old page that has been moved. The redirect causes the server to direct the visitor to the new location.
  • The site visitor benefits from the redirect by not getting the "404 Page Not Found" error.

Essential Information

Sample Redirect

Assume the old home page was named index.html and that the new page is now named index.shtm. Make a new page for the redirect named index.html (same as the old page name.) For the non-techies among us, just use the following code, changing the links and names to your school/office URL Web address.

For those wanting to understand the mechanics of how it works, read on. You can make a redirect almost invisible by setting the content variable to 0. Optionally, you can display a message announcing the change and ask visitors to update their bookmarks. To do this, increase the value of the content variable number to pause for a specified number of seconds to display a message and the new URL. After the delay, the auto-redirect occurs. The meta tag does the work here. The text and link in the body are optional.

The Redirect Code

<html>
<head>
<title>This page has moved...</title>
<meta http-equiv="Refresh" content="5; URL=http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/brookhavenes/index.shtm">
</head>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p><font size="5"><b>The Brookhaven ES site has moved to</b></font></p>
<p><font size="5"><b><a href="http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/brookhavenes/index.shtm">
http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/brookhavenes/index.shtm</a></b></font></p>
<p>Please update your links to reflect this change.<br>
If you are not automatically redirected to the new page, please click the link
above. </p>
</body>
</html>

Browser View

When viewed in a browser window, the site visitor will see the following for five seconds, and then be sent to the new page at index.shtm.

The Brookhaven ES site has moved to

http://montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/brookhavenes/index.shtm

Please update your links to reflect this change.
If you are not automatically redirected to the new page, please click the link above.

What if I have a problem or question?

Contact the Web Services Team at webmaster@mcpsmd.org

 

Updated May 22, 2007 | Contact Webmaster

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