gatsby-plugin-automatic-redirects

Automatically tracks page path changes during builds and creates redirects via Gatsby's createRedirect action.

This plugin is very useful when managing slugs dynamically in a CMS such as Contentful or when refactoring page paths. Redirects allow keeping page SEO scores and help users to get content from the latest URLs when clicking some old link.

IMPORTANT NOTE

This plugin only calls Gatsby's createRedirect action. It does not implement the redirects as this depends on your hosting solution.

Please also install & configure a Gatsby plugin that implements redirection such as gatsby-plugin-meta-redirect, gatsby-plugin-s3, gatsby-plugin-nginx-redirect, or others. Without such a plugin, the redirects will not work.

Usage

1. Add the plugin to gatsby-config.js:

   plugins: [
     `gatsby-plugin-automatic-redirects`
   ]

2. Edit your createPages API call in gatsby-node.js to retrieve page IDs and pass them in the page context, for example:

   exports.createPages = async ({ graphql, actions }) => {
     const result = await graphql(`
       query {
         allContentfulPage {
           edges {
             node {
               contentful_id
               slug
             }
           }
         }
       }
     `)
      
     const { createPage } = actions
      
     result.data.allContentfulPage.edges.forEach(({ node }) => {
       const { slug, contentful_id } = node
      
       createPage({
         path: `/${slug}`,
         component: path.resolve("./src/templates/page.js"),
         context: {
           id: contentful_id,
         },
       })
     })
   }

3. Unless overriding the getData and saveData options, make the files defined in pagesJsonFile and redirectsJsonFile (see below) persist between builds, or the plugin will not work properly. This can be done in one of two ways:
   1. Recommended: commit + push the files to your repository after building the website, possibly as part of a CI/CD workflow
   2. Define the files as CI/CD workflow artifacts, downloading them before the build and uploading them after build

Configuration

• pageIdPropertyName - page ID property name that is passed in the page context - see example above. Default: id
• pagesJsonFile - full file path where to store page data. Default: pages.json in project root
• redirectsJsonFile - full file path where to store redirection data. Default: redirects.json in project root
• createRedirectData - function that receives pageId, fromPath, and toPath and returns
  redirect data. Use this to customize redirect options or implement logic for specific paths and pages. Default:

  (pageId, fromPath, toPath) => ({
    fromPath,
    toPath,
    isPermanent: true,
  })

• getData - async function that receives pagesJsonFile and redirectsJsonFile as params and returns an object with pages and redirects properties. Use this option only if you would like to retrieve the plugin data from a custom source, such as an API endpoint or a database. Default: retrieve the data from the files defined in the pagesJsonFile and redirectsJsonFile options.
• saveData - async function that receives pages, redirects, pagesJsonFile, and redirectsJsonFile as params and saves pages and redirects somewhere. Use this option only if you would like to save plugin data in a custom source such as API endpoint or a database. Default: save the data in the files defined in the pagesJsonFile and redirectsJsonFile options.

How does it work

The plugin calls await getData(pagesJsonFile, redirectsJsonFile), by default reads the files as specified by pagesJsonFile and redirectsJsonFile, and returns an object with two properties:

1. pages - object with page IDs as keys and paths as values
2. redirects - array with redirect data objects

For example:

{
  "pages": {
    "sjdf823fosd": "/",
    "j3n7832ksdf": "/about",
    "mujvds73nfd": "/contact"
  },
  "redirects": [
    {
      "fromPath": "/about-us",
      "toPath": "/about",
      "isPermanent": true
    }
  ]
}

When a page is created with Gatsby's createPage action, the plugin uses the page ID to compare the page's previous path in pages with the current path. If the path has changed, the plugin creates new redirect data by calling createRedirectData and adds the resulting object to redirects.

The redirects are parsed to remove circular redirections and transitions:

1. If redirect /a -> /b exists, and redirect /b -> /a is added, then remove redirect /a -> /b
2. If redirect /a -> /b exists, and redirect /b -> /c is added, then update the former redirect to /a -> /c

Once the build process is finished, redirects to non-existent paths are removed, and the createRedirect action is called for each object in redirects

Finally, the plugin calls await saveData(pages, redirects, pagesJsonFile, redirectsJsonFile) to save the latest pages and redirects, by default in the files as specified by pagesJsonFile and redirectsJsonFile.