Pages with '-2' or '-3' etc...

[martinfinn]

I have pages with '-2' or '-3' etc... in the URL even when no other page exists with that same name.

We do not have the option to remove the '-2' as it is appearing only URL and not the page name in Canvas

As a company they dont want '-2' in the URL.

Can these pages be edited to remove the '-2' etc.. from the URL.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @martinfinn,

This is related to the Sept 16 2023 Canvas release.  The release includes an enhancement where page links are retained when pages are renamed so that links in a course do not break when a page is renamed.  Basically, if you create a page named "hello", then rename it to "goodbye" and create a new page with the name "hello", that new page would have a url ending of /hello-#, because /hello is reserved to redirect over to /goodbye.  This might be the one downside to what is otherwise a very welcome change by most Canvas users.  I don't think there is a way to undo this, short of resetting the entire course and starting over again.

Hope this at least explains why this is happening, even though it may not resolve the issue of you wanting to remove the numbers form the URLs.

-Chris

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@martinfinn ...

I wanted to add to what @chriscas has shared with you.  I recently read an explanation from one of Instructure's employees about this topic...which you can find here:

Re: Features Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2023-09-16... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I hope it will also help in some way.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @martinfinn,

This is related to the Sept 16 2023 Canvas release.  The release includes an enhancement where page links are retained when pages are renamed so that links in a course do not break when a page is renamed.  Basically, if you create a page named "hello", then rename it to "goodbye" and create a new page with the name "hello", that new page would have a url ending of /hello-#, because /hello is reserved to redirect over to /goodbye.  This might be the one downside to what is otherwise a very welcome change by most Canvas users.  I don't think there is a way to undo this, short of resetting the entire course and starting over again.

Hope this at least explains why this is happening, even though it may not resolve the issue of you wanting to remove the numbers form the URLs.

-Chris

[JeffCampbell]

Glad to see the functionality to maintain page links after a rename was implemented. I never understood why Assignments, discussions, etc. all are assigned a number for the URL, but Page's were based on the name. If assigned a number, that would feasibly address the issue. I've noticed I can change the name of other options without impacting links.

[chriscas]

I have always had that same thought too.  Making the URL based on the page name doesn't match with anything else in Canvas and has always been so problematic with renames and maintaining links.  The last release at addressed some of the downsides.  At this point, switching everything to an ID instead may be just as problematic for existing content.

-Chris

[James · Accepted solution]

@chriscas and @JeffCampbell

Sometimes it is difficult to understand the reasoning behind something that we don't experience ourselves. If you're a programmer or work with the API, then a number based system absolutely works well and Canvas allows you to use numeric IDs in the calls.

For the rest of us, using a name-based path is human-friendly (it's even called a friendly url) is considered good usability and helps with search engine optimization (although that's not usually an issue within Canvas). Having someone see wave_data is easier to understand than seeing 1241578. It instills confidence in the user that they are going to a page somewhat related to the what the URL says as opposed to some random page number where you have no idea what you're going to get when you get there. From the tech side, it also makes it easier to construct dynamically through programming so that I don't have to look up an ID, I can take my well-formed page name, lowercase it, change spaces to underscores and have the url to use.

On the other hand, I really wish they wouldn't have made this change and I spoke against it (one of the few, I admit) when it was proposed. That's in the past and now people need to figure out how to work with the new workflow after living with the other for over a decade.

I haven't had time to investigate whether deleting a page allows you to remove a redirect and re-use the page. MediaWiki has a way to add a manual redirect code to the page rather so that it can be undone or changed as needed. I don't see any additions to the pages API that allow for this.

[JeffCampbell]

Hmm...very helpful to understand it from that perspective. Thank you @James, especially as someone trying to learn HTML/CSS myself.

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@martinfinn ...

I wanted to add to what @chriscas has shared with you.  I recently read an explanation from one of Instructure's employees about this topic...which you can find here:

Re: Features Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2023-09-16... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

I hope it will also help in some way.