Case Sensitive URLs

Pilznr · August 2, 2013

Hey Friends,
I assume others are finding that your URLs in the New Smug are now case-sensitive. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this wasn't the case in "Legacy" Smug. I plan to use "Pages" to replace my old usage of "Vanity URLs" and (for example) I don't like that www.mattpilsner.com/PDS will work, but www.mattpilsner.com/pds doesn't work. The "page settings" will not allow me to set the URL to a lowercase URL. It tells me that the first letter must be capital, etc. Any way around this?? Thanks in advance.

Pilznr · August 2, 2013

Maybe I'm the only one??

denisegoldberg · August 2, 2013

Pilznr wrote: »

he "page settings" will not allow me to set the URL to a lowercase URL. It tells me that the first letter must be capital, etc. Any way around this??

I saw a note on this from a smug developer in another thread but I can't find it right now. If I stumble on it I'll add a link here - but if I remember what I read earlier there isn't a workaround.

--- Denise

Pilznr · August 2, 2013

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I saw a note on this from a smug developer in another thread but I can't find it right now. If I stumble on it I'll add a link here - but if I remember what I read earlier there isn't a workaround.

--- Denise

Awesome! Thank you. I probably have a ton of links out there that won't work now...

GoodEye · August 2, 2013

I noticed this as well - I need to go through my email drafts for client inquiries to make sure all the links work now.

Chris Schmauch
www.GoodEyePhotography.com

bobpal · August 2, 2013

I am having the case problem as well. When you make a new custom URL it makes you capitalize the first letter of the word after the slash. On my old site it did not. My customers have been told to use www.xxx.com/sports. Now only www.xxx.com/Sports works. This is a problem.

bike21 · August 2, 2013

Yep, a big please to SM to address this one.

Pilznr · August 7, 2013

Yes, a big PLEASE! I'm sure there are tons of broken links out there that are making everyone look bad.
Who can move this over to the new "new smugmug customization" forum instead of the "Legacy" one for me? mod?

aaronbrown · August 9, 2013

Anyone hear of any updates on this?

Dreadnote · August 9, 2013

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1893600&postcount=372

aaronbrown wrote: »

Anyone hear of any updates on this?

aaronbrown · August 9, 2013

Dreadnote wrote: »

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1893600&postcount=372

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I'm glad the fix is in the works. I have the exact concern Baldy mentioned being a wedding photographer. Cheers!

bike21 · August 10, 2013

Perhaps it was happy hour reading comprehension, but did Baldy say we will be able to use lowercase again soon?

jhelms · August 26, 2013

bike21 wrote: »

Perhaps it was happy hour reading comprehension, but did Baldy say we will be able to use lowercase again soon?

http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=1893600&postcount=372

Yep, anyone gotten any updates to that?

bike21 · August 26, 2013

Nope. Off to a competitor for me that supports all lowercase. Might be nit-picky, but it was on my list of 'must haves' among other things.

Epicaricacy · October 11, 2013

Big Urgent Fix form me as well. Crazy forcing capitals i URLs... user UN-friendly idea....

dahveedgr · December 25, 2013

Case-sensitive URLs? ... the worst user experience
This is an exceedingly bad idea that goes against "friendly URLs"... specially when millions of people have been taught by best-practices in the online industry to ignore case when typing URLs. Even if I spell it out in print, most users will still type it lower case on their browsers. Also a pain to convey by word of mouth.

Pilznr · December 26, 2013

I've had to resort to a "Client Login" system that just lets the user type in a non-case-sensitive name and then redirects them to their galleries. This may eventually prove to be a challenge to manage with a ton of galleries and clients, but that's my fix for now. Even with this method, I still have to remind my clients in every email that the URLs that they may copy and paste must remain case-sensitive. If any of the SmugMug sorcerers have an update on a possible fix for this, please fill us in...

DanCarl97 · February 1, 2014

Any update? It's a real hassle to deal with. From what I can tell, this fix was in the works 8 months ago. I'd really appreciate any update on this, or if fix is coming at all?

jhelms · February 15, 2014

Just tried a few and looks like maybe this has been fixed for categories that have one word (i.e., /events auto-redirected to /Events without me changing anything, when this used to not be the case a couple of months ago, but /local-events would not goto /Local-Events for example).

phaserbeam · February 15, 2014

jhelms wrote: »

Just tried a few and looks like maybe this has been fixed for categories that have one word (i.e., /events auto-redirected to /Events without me changing anything, when this used to not be the case a couple of months ago, but /local-events would not goto /Local-Events for example).

It is like that for a long time now... only the first letter is converted from upper to lower case if a gallery name with upper case does not exist. This is OK because SM only changed the first one if you create a new Gallery. If someone uses mixed upper/lower case in a gallery name then SM does not need to fix that, the user wanted it to have it that way.

Of course it would be better to have full case nonsensitive URLs but i think this is not going to be changed anymore...

DanCarl97 · February 16, 2014

Well two of my folders are lowercase while the rest are upper case. I have to give out short links because my clients simply can't understand why it's case sensitive. The internet is never case sensitive, they'll say.

LiveAwake · August 6, 2014

This is AWFUL. Absolutely unbelievable that the end of our URLs must be case-sensitive. Is SmugMug REALLY going to just ignore this while so many users have broken links (and worse, printed collateral), many who probably don't even know it yet? Terrible, terrible, terrible.

rainforest1155 · August 11, 2014

LiveAwake wrote: »

This is AWFUL. Absolutely unbelievable that the end of our URLs must be case-sensitive. Is SmugMug REALLY going to just ignore this while so many users have broken links (and worse, printed collateral), many who probably don't even know it yet? Terrible, terrible, terrible.

Actually, this has already been addressed last year. If you have a custom url like this:
Landscapes
it'll also be accessible via:
landscapes
as long as there's no SmugMug system page for that custom url.

You just have to make sure that you don't add any upper case letters within your custom url as those are always case sensitive. For example:
My-Landscapes
would still work with a lower case first letter:
my-Landscapes
but you'll need to enter the following letters exactly as set.

To avoid that, don't use any upper case letters beyond the first letter. So instead use:
My-landscapes
and it'll be accessible via:
my-landscapes
as well.

Pilznr · August 11, 2014

rainforest1155 wrote: »

You just have to make sure that you don't add any upper case letters within your custom url as those are always case sensitive.

I wish there was an announcement about this... Maybe I missed it. Thanks for the update. Very helpful to know this now.

rainforest1155 · August 12, 2014

Pilznr wrote: »

I wish there was an announcement about this... Maybe I missed it. Thanks for the update. Very helpful to know this now.

I can't find it right now, but there was a different thread (with an extensive discussion) where this was covered and I believe that's where the change was announced as well.

phaserbeam · August 12, 2014

rainforest1155 wrote: »

I can't find it right now, but there was a different thread (with an extensive discussion) where this was covered and I believe that's where the change was announced as well.

I don't think there was a real announcement for that... but i think this thread was the first thread about case sensitive URLs and includes a (small) reply from the support heroes.

EDIT: There is a thread "Updates from Baldy" including a heavy discussion about those case sensitive URLs..."

LiveAwake · August 12, 2014

rainforest1155 wrote: »

Actually, this has already been addressed last year. If you have a custom url like this:
Landscapes
it'll also be accessible via:
landscapes
as long as there's no SmugMug system page for that custom url.

You just have to make sure that you don't add any upper case letters within your custom url as those are always case sensitive. For example:
My-Landscapes
would still work with a lower case first letter:
my-Landscapes
but you'll need to enter the following letters exactly as set.

To avoid that, don't use any upper case letters beyond the first letter. So instead use:
My-landscapes
and it'll be accessible via:
my-landscapes
as well.

Not so! My "about" section does not work this way. If you go to www.manifestphoto.com/About you will see my content, but if you go to www.manifestphoto.com/about you will get a page that says No Galleries Found.

I tried to change the custom URL to have no capitals, but when I tried I got a message in red saying the first letter MUST be capital.

phaserbeam · August 12, 2014

LiveAwake wrote: »

Not so! My "about" section does not work this way. If you go to www.manifestphoto.com/About you will see my content, but if you go to www.manifestphoto.com/about you will get a page that says No Galleries Found.

I tried to change the custom URL to have no capitals, but when I tried I got a message in red saying the first letter MUST be capital.

Maybe the /about page is also a reserved keyword but not yet in use by all smugmug domains.

On my pages it works for existing galleries (sample gallery here:http://phaserbeam.smugmug.com/discover) as described as long as the first letter is upper case and the rest is lower case, which is the default for new galleries and pages in smugmug. The message in red saying the first letter MUST be capital is correct.
If a visitor types the first letter in lower case smugmug will redirect him to the correct gallery.

If i create an "About" gallery i get an empty gallery which is correct. If i visit /about i get some "New smug" advertisement?!?
If i rename that gallery to "About2" it works as described. If i type /about2 i will be redirected to "/About2". So i assume /about is a reserved URL.

rainforest1155 · August 13, 2014

Yes, the about example conflicts with a SmugMug system page, which is why it won't work there. That's why I can only recommend that you always share the proper link with the correct case as we may add more system pages in the future that coincide with custom url's you've picked. The redirect on the lower case first letter is only in place as a fall back in case a customer manually types a link and doesn't pay attention to case. However, it's not indented to be used as the main link you share.

LiveAwake · August 13, 2014

How can SmugMug reserve such basic URLs as "/about" and expect anything but absolute disaster?? SO MANY people use /about as a basic domain modifier . . . I don't fully understand the technical issue behind this, but whatever - WHATEVER - it is, SM needs to prioritize the best interest of their clients and fix this. It's completely unacceptable from the perspective of a business website to be locked out from access to basic and common URL modifiers. If SmugMug does not resolve this, I guarantee it will cost them business . . . probably including mine.

JohnHero · August 13, 2014

Actually, the lower case "/about" for a SmugMug site is a bug that we are looking into. That one should work.

I have included a link to customizable system pages that use the lower case on SmugMug. See the "Customize System Pages" section.

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1210637-how-do-i-create-and-customize-pages-?b_id=1644

Case Sensitive URLs

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