ArtSites Updates

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Last week, I wrote an article about Finding the Link (a.k.a URL) for Your Image Pages.

Relating to last week's post, we received a recent question from Deirdre Hofer asking us how we create our links / URLs and whether they can be changed.

Here's a short summary of how your image page links get created.

For each image (and web page that an image is on), there needs to be a unique name with some special rules.

In other words, the part of your link, following your domain name, is known in the industry as a "slug".

When you upload an image for the first time using our Multiple Images Upload Option, we automatically use the title of the file from your computer, i.e. the filename, to create the slug.

We remove punctuation, convert everything to lower case and replace spaces with underscores.

(You should note that if the filename is the original one created by a camera, it probably won't be very useful ;-)

That said, many of our artists name their files based on the work's name.

So, this automated approach can be a very effective way to upload a lot of images.

If you are uploading each image separately, you have the option to set the "Title" of the image and we will then use the entered Title for the "slug".

However, if you leave the Title blank, we automatically create "image_1" as the slug.

If "image_1" is already being used, "_2" will be tried with the number increasing until it finds a unique slug / number.

This is how you end up with numbered page names such as "image_1", "image_2", "image_3", etc.

And now to the question that follows, "Can I Change the Slug?"

Unfortunately, we don't have an easy way to change the slug once an image has been uploaded.

We have debated allowing this but it has two big problems.

Firstly, the parameters for a "slug" are very specific and it's quite easy to unintentionally create an "invalid" slug.

Secondly, once created, changing a slug can have a lot of ramifications that are beyond our control.

It really is best to get the slug right to begin with.

So, our suggestions are to either enter the appropriate Title, if you use the "Upload 1 New Image" option.

Or, rename your files to match the slugs you want, if you use "Upload Multiple Images".

If you really need to change an existing slug, we can do it behind the scenes.

But, it is a very tedious process and will likely break / affect external links to your page, etc.

I do hope that gives you an overview of how your image page links are created and what you can do to create the best "slug"!

And, if you have any follow-up questions or comments, please just let us know!