v.19.06.01 > URL Rewrite Rules

Beginning with version v.19.06.01 of the main Submitty repository we will be using the Symfony router to shorten URLs for the pages within the site. Shortening the URLs makes them more legible and intuitive for users. It is also related to our work to establish an API and refactor and improve the code.

Old URL:

https://submitty.myuniversity.edu/index.php?&component=navigation&course=csci1000&semester=s19

New URL:

https://submitty.myuniversity.edu/s19/csci1000

Note: The shortened URLs will be implemented in stages over multiple PRs throughout the next few weeks. Links within the site will be updated to use the new router.

If your production installation or vagrant virtual machine installation is recent (from mid-June 2019, v.19.06.01 or later) then you shouldn’t have to change anything manually.

If your installation is a bit older, in order to use the shortened URLs you must edit your Apache configuration. This is not something we want to tackle with a automatic migration.

Updating a Production Installation

Edit your Apache configuration:

Go to /etc/apache2/sites-available
Find the appropriate .conf file.

Note: If you have multiple files, you can double check which configurations are linked (and thus in-use) from the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled directory.

Find the configuration block for /usr/local/submitty/site/public and edit it to add the lines below to enable the rewrite engine and define these rewrite rules.

<Directory /usr/local/submitty/site/public>
     Require all granted
     Order allow,deny
     Allow from all

     RewriteEngine On

     # If the requested filename exists, simply serve it.                                             
     RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
     RewriteRule ^ - [L]

     # Else rewrite urls to use index.php, however we have to be aware of two                         
     # possible conditions of whether index.php is in the URL already or not.                         
     # To be backwards compatible, we want to ensure that having /index.php                           
     # is valid and usable. In anycase, we rewrite everything up-to /index.php                        
     # to be the "url" parameter of the query, and then append whatever else we                       
     # had in the QUERY_STRING after it.                                                              
     RewriteRule ^(.+)/index\.php$ /index.php?url=$1&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,END]
     RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /index.php?url=$1&%{QUERY_STRING} [NC,END]

     # NOTE: This line is required starting with v19.06.02
     SetEnvIf Authorization "(.*)" HTTP_AUTHORIZATION=$1

 </Directory>

Restart Apache
```
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
```
Now it should be safe to update the Submitty software on your machine to v.19.06.01 or later
```
sudo /usr/local/submitty/.setup/INSTALL_SUBMITTY.sh
```
And then you should be able to use the shortened URLs, for example to access the main navigation page of one of your existing courses.
```
https://submitty.myuniversity.edu/s19/csci1000
```
Note: Version v.19.06.01 is backwards compatible and both versions of the URLs work. Later versions will only support the new shortened urls.

Updating a Developer Virtual Machine

You can follow the steps above, or copy the configuration from the repository (with edits) and restart Apache.

Copy the Apache config from the repository:

cp /usr/local/submitty/GIT_CHECKOUT/Submitty/.setup/vagrant/sites-available/submitty.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/submitty.conf 

Manually edit the /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/submitty.conf file to replace SUBMITTY_URL with 192.168.56.111
Restart Apache:
```
sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
```

System Administrator > Installation Version Notes