Redirector

Nginx configuration and supporting tools and tests for the redirector, an Ngnix server used to redirect old websites being moved to GOV.UK.

Sites

Each site is configured using a yaml file in the data/sites directory:

• site — friendly name for the site
• host — primary hostname for site
• redirection_date — planned go live date
• tna_timestamp — timestamp of the last good National Archives capture
• title — site title for 410 page
• furl — friendly URL displayed on error pages
• homepage — URL for new site, used to redirect '/'
• aliases — list of alias domains

Mappings

A CSV file in data/mappings for each site containing:

• Old Url — the Url to be redirected in canonical form
• New Url — the destination Url for a 301
• Status — 301 for a redirect, 410 for a page which is being deprecated
• Suggested Link — an optional suggested link for the 410 page
• Archive Link — an alternative link to The National Archives for the 410 page

During development, mappings are usually generated from spreadsheets, or using scripts. Once live they are maintained in this repository.

New Url values may only contain a hostname cited in data/whitelist.txt.

Server config

An nginx server block for each site in redirector/configs.

Build

The build is through GNU Make, to build the site:

$ ./jenkins.sh

Dist

Nginx configuration is generated in dist.

Assets

Directgov and Businesslink assets are stored in GitHub and deployed via s3, see assets-directgov and assets-businesslink.

Test

A list of the most important urls to be tested on each website in data/tests/subsets/.

Test in a virtual

export DEPLOY_TO=dev
./tools/smoke_tests.sh

Test against preview

export DEPLOY_TO=preview
./tools/smoke_tests.sh

Test against production

export DEPLOY_TO=production
./tools/smoke_tests.sh

Akamai

The redirector is deployed behind Akamai. The domain should be added as a property to the Akamai redirector configuration before changing the DNS of websites being redirected.