eea.api.redirector 0.1

Plone Redirector extension to get redirect URLs also from Redis

The eea.api.redirector is a Plone add-on that extends Plone’s native redirect system with Redis-based URL redirects, enabling high-performance redirect lookups and external redirect management.

Contents

• Main features

• Install

• Configuration

• How it works

• REST API Endpoints

• Performance

• HTTP 410 Gone Support

• Source code

• Eggs repository

• Plone versions

• How to contribute

• Copyright and license

• Funding

• Changelog

Main features

1. Redis-backed redirects: Store and retrieve URL redirects from Redis in addition to Plone’s database

2. REST API endpoints: Full CRUD operations for managing redirects via @redirects endpoint

3. Control panel integration: Web UI for managing redirects (requires volto-redirector frontend)

4. High-performance statistics: Redis pipelining for calculating statistics on 100k+ redirects in ~2 seconds

5. Advanced search: Search both old and new URLs using simple or regex patterns (e.g., ^/publications, example.com)

6. Fallback mechanism: Automatically checks Redis when redirects are not found in Plone storage

7. Graceful error handling: Redis connection failures don’t break the redirection system

8. API endpoint support: Intelligent hierarchical URL matching for API services and endpoints

9. Proper HTTP status codes: Returns 410 Gone for permanently deleted resources (empty redirect targets)

10. Redirect loop prevention: Built-in protection against circular redirects

11. Easy configuration: Simple environment variable setup for Redis connections

12. Non-intrusive: Extends existing Plone functionality without replacing it

Install

• Via pip:

  $ pip install eea.api.redirector

• Or via docker-compose:

  $ docker-compose up -d

This will start both Plone 6 and Redis services with the add-on pre-configured.

• Install eea.api.redirector within Site Setup > Add-ons

Configuration

Redis connection settings are configured via environment variables:

• REDIS_SERVER - Redis server hostname (default: localhost)

• REDIS_PORT - Redis server port (default: 6379)

• REDIS_DB - Redis database index (default: 0)

• REDIS_TIMEOUT - Connection timeout in seconds (default: 5)

The included docker-compose.yml demonstrates how to configure these settings. The Plone service connects to Redis using:

environment:
  REDIS_SERVER: "redis"
  REDIS_PORT: "6379"
  REDIS_DB: "0"
  REDIS_TIMEOUT: "5"

How it works

The add-on extends Plone’s built-in plone.app.redirector by:

1. Storage Integration: Adds a Redis storage utility alongside Plone’s database storage

2. Fallback Lookup: When a redirect is not found in Plone’s database, it checks Redis

3. API Support: Custom error handling for API endpoints with hierarchical URL matching

4. Non-blocking: If Redis is unavailable, the system continues using Plone’s standard redirects

This design allows you to:

• Manage redirects externally via Redis while maintaining Plone’s UI-based redirect management

• Share redirects across multiple Plone instances using a common Redis server

• Achieve faster redirect lookups for high-traffic sites

• Store temporary or dynamic redirects that don’t need to persist in Plone’s database

REST API Endpoints

The add-on provides REST API endpoints for managing redirects:

GET /@redirects

List redirects with pagination and search support.

Query parameters:

• q - Search query for old or new URL paths (supports regex: ^/publications, .*\.pdf$)

• b_size - Batch size (default: 25, options: 10, 25, 50, 100, 500, 1000)

• b_start - Batch start offset (default: 0)

• search_scope - Where to search: old_url (default), new_url, or both

Example:

GET /Plone/@redirects?q=/themes&b_size=25&b_start=0&search_scope=old_url

Response:

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:8080/Plone/@redirects",
  "items": [
    {
      "path": "/old-path",
      "redirect-to": "/new-path"
    },
    {
      "path": "/deleted-page",
      "redirect-to": ""
    }
  ],
  "items_total": 187520
}

GET /@redirects-statistics

Get statistics for redirects.

Query parameters:

• q - Optional search query to filter statistics

Example:

GET /Plone/@redirects-statistics?q=/themes

Response:

{
  "@id": "http://localhost:8080/Plone/@redirects-statistics",
  "statistics": {
    "total": 187520,
    "internal": 32935,
    "external": 1611,
    "gone": 152974
  }
}

Statistics categories:

• total - Total number of redirects

• internal - Redirects to internal paths (starting with /)

• external - Redirects to external URLs (starting with http:// or https://)

• gone - Empty redirects for permanently deleted content (HTTP 410)

POST /@redirects

Add new redirects.

Request body:

{
  "items": [
    {
      "path": "/old-path",
      "redirect-to": "/new-path"
    },
    {
      "path": "/deleted-page",
      "redirect-to": ""
    }
  ]
}

Notes:

• Empty redirect-to marks content as permanently deleted (returns HTTP 410 Gone)

• Paths are automatically trimmed of whitespace

• Self-redirects are prevented (path cannot equal redirect-to)

Response:

{
  "success": 2,
  "failed": []
}

DELETE /@redirects

Remove redirects.

Request body:

{
  "items": [
    {"path": "/old-path"}
  ]
}

Response:

{
  "success": 1,
  "failed": []
}

Performance

The add-on uses Redis pipelining for optimal performance:

• Statistics calculation: ~2 seconds for 187,000 redirects (42x faster than individual GET operations)

• List pagination: Scans keys only, fetches values only for requested page

• Search queries: Uses Redis SCAN with pattern matching for efficient filtering

Benchmark results (187,520 redirects):

• SCAN all keys: 0.36s

• Statistics with pipelining: 1.8s

• Individual GET operations: 77s (not used)

HTTP 410 Gone Support

Redirects with empty targets (redirect-to: "") return HTTP 410 Gone status, indicating the resource has been permanently deleted. This is the proper HTTP status code for removed content that will not return.

The frontend (volto-redirector) can display a custom 410 Gone page with:

• Information about the deleted resource

• Link to Wayback Machine for archived versions

• Helpful navigation options

Source code

• eea.api.redirector (backend)

• volto-redirector (frontend)

Eggs repository

• https://pypi.python.org/pypi/eea.api.redirector

• http://eggrepo.eea.europa.eu/simple

Plone versions

It has been developed and tested for Plone 6. See section above.

How to contribute

See the contribution guidelines (CONTRIBUTING.md).

Copyright and license

eea.api.redirector (the Original Code) is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA.

The Initial Owner of the Original Code is European Environment Agency (EEA). Portions created by Eau de Web are Copyright (C) 2009 by European Environment Agency. All Rights Reserved.

Funding

EEA - European Environment Agency (EU)

Changelog

0.1 - (2025-11-28)

• Feature: Redis-backed URL redirects with high-performance lookups [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: REST API endpoints (@redirects, @redirects-statistics) for full CRUD operations [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Advanced search with regex support and search scope selector (old_url, new_url, both) [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: HTTP 410 Gone support for permanently deleted content (empty redirect targets) [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: High-performance statistics using Redis pipelining (~2s for 100k+ redirects) [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Pagination support with configurable batch sizes (10, 25, 50, 100, 500, 1000) [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Alphabetical sorting of redirects for consistent display [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Bulk import/export via REST API (CSV support in frontend) [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Fallback mechanism to check Redis when redirects not found in Plone storage [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Graceful error handling - Redis failures don’t break redirection system [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: API endpoint support with intelligent hierarchical URL matching [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Redirect loop prevention [avoinea - refs $293748]

• Feature: Easy configuration via environment variables (REDIS_SERVER, REDIS_PORT, REDIS_DB, REDIS_TIMEOUT) [avoinea - refs $293748]