Shorter, smarter URLs

Today we began more widely implementing the mod_rewrite apache module to rewrite some of our ugly URLs. For example, the URL for a news story previously had been http://www.gustavus.edu/news/index.cfm?id=1658. That very same story can now be accessed at http://www.gustavus.edu/news/1658. Likewise, Eric Dugdale’s class schedule can now be accessed from http://www.gustavus.edu/oncampus/facultyschedules/edugdale instead of http://www.gustavus.edu/oncampus/facultyschedules/index.cfm?action=view&username=edugdale.

While this may, at first, seem like a minor aesthetic change, we are excited with the improved usability and indexability that these new, shorter, smarter URLs offer and are committed to optimizing and improving the usability and accessibility of the Gustavus website.