Understanding URL Aliases

Use

A URL alias is the part of the portal URL after the section that specifies the portal J2EE application ( irj ), which by default is http://<server>:<port>/irj . You can define custom URL aliases for your own portal usage scenarios.

When defining a URL alias, you specify its system properties, which indicate the type of portal access to provide for users accessing the portal with that alias. For example, whether anonymous user access is allowed, and whether the portal can be accessed via a proxy server.

After defining a URL alias, you can use it in a portal display rule to specify which portal desktop is assigned to portal users at runtime when accessing the portal with a specific URL alias. If a user specifies an undefined alias, it is ignored. For information about incorporating URL aliases in a rule collection, see Defining Portal Display Rules .

The following is the format for a portal URL (where / <quick link> is optional): http://<hostname>:<port>/irj/<alias>/<quick link> . For example, the URL alias for displaying the light framework page is / portal/light , so the URL for accessing the portal with the light framework page is: http://<hostname>:<port>/irj/portal/light .

Comparison of URL Alias Definition Methods

You can define URL aliases both in the URL Alias Manager and in the web.xml file. We recommend that you use the URL Alias Manager to define URL aliases. Following is a comparison between the different methods you can use to define URL aliases:

URL Alias Manager	Web.xml File
Enables you to modify or delete URL aliases that were created in the URL Alias Manager. Enables you to view (read-only) URL aliases that were created in the `web.xml` file.	Enables you to modify or delete URL aliases that were created in the `web.xml` file
URL aliases are preserved during portal upgrades	URL aliases are overwritten during portal upgrades
URL aliases are effective immediately after definition	URL aliases require portal restart after definition
URL aliases are saved as objects in the PCD ( `pcd:com.sap.portal.system/navigation/aliases` )	URL aliases are saved in the `web.xml` file
Displays a read-only view of all the default URL aliases predefined in the `web.xml` file	Contains all of the default predefined URL aliases
Portal gateway servlet is automatically preconfigured	Portal gateway servlet must be manually configured as a parameter of the URL alias
At runtime, URL aliases defined in both locations are taken into account. However, if a URL alias exists with the same name in both locations, the URL alias that is defined in the `web.xml` file is used at runtime.

Recommendations

We recommend that you:

define all new URL aliases in the URL Alias Manager.
set the portal alias cookie to be delivered in secure mode to meet all security standards. For more information, see Securing the Portal Alias Cookie .

Transporting URL Aliases

You can transfer URL aliases between systems by adding them to transport packages (EPA files) in the same way as you add other objects to transport packages. You select the URL aliases to add to the transport package in the Package Export Editor ( Start of the navigation path System Administration Next navigation step Transport Transport Packages Export End of the navigation path . For more information, see Adding Content to a Transport Package .

After you import a transport package that contains URL aliases, you must restart the com.sap.portal.navigation.AliasService service in SAP NetWeaver Administrator to see the URL aliases in the URL Alias Manager and use them in the Master Rule Collection . For more information, see Starting and Stopping Portal Services .