#Configuration

In the ./config/ folder are json files. Copy the dist files to the same filename without “.dist”

• redirects_[FQDN].json -
• aliases.json -

You can create multipe redirect files redirects_[FQDN].json. We suggest to use the main domain as FQDN. If you have multiple domains that should use exactly the same redirects then use the aliases.json.

Other requirements:

• In the DNS you must point each domain to the redirect website.
• In the apache web with multiple vhosts: add the need a server alias to process the hostname in the wanted vhost

#Redirects

There are 2 required sections to define redirects:

• direct
• regex

The section “direct” will be scanned first and has priority. The json will be read into a hash … if you define a direct rule twice then the last rule will win.

If no direct rule matches the regex section will be scanned. Winner is the first matching regex.

If no rule matches a 404 will be shown.

Hint: if you set regex “.*” as last entry it works as a catchall for unmatched requests and you can define a default redirect target instead of showing a 404.

Both redirect section contain a redirect definition

• code - http status code for redirection
• target - target url of the redirect

Status codes

• 301 => ‘Moved Permanently’; the url is outdated
• 307 => ‘Temporary Redirect’; the url is valid
• 308 => ‘Permanent Redirect’; the url is outdated

Suggestion for redirection lifecycle:

• an active redirect (i.e. a campaign) use code 307
• if the redirect has finished its life, switch the code to 308 or 301.
• remove the redirect (which results into 404)

Example:

{
    "direct":{
        "heise":   {"code": 307, "target": "https://www.heise.de" }
    },

    "regex":{
        "^$":      {"code": 307, "target": "https://www.iml.unibe.ch" },
        "^ax.l.*": {"code": 307, "target": "https://www.axel-hahn.de" }
    }
}

#Server aliases

If you have multiple domains with the same rules you can define aliases.

Example:

{
    "www.example.com": "example.com",
    "zzz-domainname":  "existing-host-with-redirect-config"
}

The key is the name of the alias. The value is a domain for that was written a redirect_[hostname].json already.

The existance of a redirect config has higher priority than an entry in the aliases config.