UCSF School of Pharmacy

URL Architecture

1. URLs in our site must follow the guidelines in Choosing a Domain Name and URLs and Cool URIs don't change.
2. URLs should never end in index.html or index.htm or any filename followed by a filename extension. Use DirectoryIndex features (as our templates encourage) to hide server-side technologies, which makes bookmarks more robust, URLs easier to type, and long-term site maintenance less expensive.
3. Links to pages on our own site must always specify a directory. They should not end in index.html or index.htm or index.php or any filename followed by a filename extension.
4. Because long URLs can present problems when used in e-mail or print publications, set up a shorter redirect URL and use that when communicating instead of the long URL. Example: pharmacy.ucsf.edu/go/graduation redirects to pharmacy.ucsf.edu/pharmd/events/graduation/.
5. Before deleting content and leaving corresponding URLs with a "page not found" error, consider explaining why the content was removed or consider archiving the content at a different URL reached by an appropriate server-level redirect. See Cool URIs don't change and Web Pages Must Live Forever.
6. When a section of your site includes content that changes over time, provide explicit instructions about how the content changes and how visitors can bookmark what they want. For an example, see "Linking to This Page" in column 2 of Update from the Dean.

Go To: Information Architecture or Style Guide