[Pages] ALL links when Page name changes

[anthonem]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

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Here's a common scenario:

An instructor makes a page, let's say a module overview page, and then links to this page from a custom Home page. While developing the course, the instructor changes the name of the module overview page. This breaks the homepage link because the page URL contains the page name.

Please create a system to avoid this common problem.

[jonathan_potter]

This seems like basic functionality that shouldn't need voting! Canvas, don't let the "lack of user interest" keep this from happening. This is a huge hassle. You should at least warn users when they attempt to change a page name that they will break all links. To me the ideal scenario would be that changing a page name triggers a dialogue asking users whether they want to update all links.

[jonathan_potter]

One thing I discovered that might be helpful, which hasn't been mentioned in this thread, is that you can "validate links" from the Settings page, and this will at least show you if you have links (including internal Canvas links) that are broken. You still have to manually fix each one, but at least you can find them here.

[Renee_Carney]

  Idea is currently in Product Radar Learn more about this stage...

[sphinney]

I'm so happy someone has requested this update and even more thrilled to see it on the product radar! In attempting to create course site templates for our faculty, I've found this to be a major issue that somewhat defeats the purpose of using a template to simplify course setup. Also, I've seen it suggested in a number of places that a Canvas "best practice" is to use the content selector when you want to link to a resource in your course, because for one thing it will ensure that the link will work when you copy the course to a new term. My thinking is that it should also ensure that the link will continue to work even after the title of a page or an assignment changes. I can't wait until this has been implemented

[tabbott1]

Please update this!

[laurakgibbs]

I voted up on this but it really feels a bit like rearranging-deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic. The Pages tool is an incredibly clunky, limited, and frustrating tool to use for building anything more than just a few pages. Instructure's emphasis lately has been on quizzes and gradebook, and I understand why there has been that emphasis, but now that those huge quiz and gradebook projects are reaching their conclusions (slowly but surely...), I hope that there will be a serious re-look at content development inside Canvas, because the content ecosystem really needs rethinking, beyond just tinkering with Page file names or putting folders in Pages or adding an HTML editor to the Files area and on and on (there is a whole slew of tinkering-at-the-margins feature requests having to do with the content tools). 

The most substantial discussion I've seen of the content-tool problems was at the Folders-in-Pages discussion, although I am sure there are other long-running discussions that I simply have not come across.

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/7532-allow-folders-in-pages 

Here's my plea there for using Analytics as a way to rethink content; I worry that the current emphasis on Analytics without a serious look at content is going to pull the rug out from under Analytics before it even really gets going:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/7532-allow-folders-in-pages#comment-82704 

[vandover]

Is there any motion on this idea? I am encountering instructors who want to edit the title of a page they have linked to, which breaks the link, which then creates and links to a copy of the unlinked page, which creates a snowball of duplicate pages! It is very frustrating for instructors who want to adjust page names as their teaching topics shift.

[c_murphy]

Just adding my voice to concur with others here  - this issue with page renaming causing a broken link is one which crops up in particular at rollover time when courses are being tidied up. It's a pain.

[873179959]

I know this thread is a bit old, but this is still a major problem when:

• We update a page name and all links to that page within that course break
• When a user has bookmarked a page url
• When we link to a page in an email or document (we use a canvas course as a faculty resource portal, so there are tons of links to different pages within that portal in websites, emails, other courses, etc.)

Some workarounds we've used

• If you right click a page link from the modules section, and save that url, it gives you a link with a numerical module ID that remains the same even when you rename the page or when you move that page to a different module. However, a new module ID link is created each time you add a page to a different module. So, if instead of dragging the module item from one module to the next, you removed it from a module and added it to another module, the url would change.
• We run the link checker tool at the end of each course build and the start of each term to find the broken links. Links to pages whose name has changed should show up there, and you can find which links you need to update. (This helps for links within the course, but not for the other two use cases above.)

Some possible solutions and issues with those solutions:

• I love the idea of using a numerical page ID that is stable even when the page name changes, but the reasoning I've heard as to why the url includes the page name is that it is best practice for UDL and accessibility. (Although if you use appropriate hyperlink and alt-tag practices, that's not an issue.)
• Earlier in this thread, someone mentioned this idea Modules: enable editing page descriptor without altering page name (and therefore page URL) It looks like this is in "Cold Storage." So, I'm not sure if other issues with that solution emerged or if it just didn't have enough votes. I can see having two different names/identifiers could be messy.

[laurakgibbs]

There is nothing good about breaking URLs for accessibility or for design. It's just something that you used to see in old content platforms and, over time, it's a problem that has been fixed (Blogger URLs used to break when you changed the date of a post, etc.) ... there are lots of problems with the Pages area of Canvas, but this is definitely one of the most frustrating.