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Aliases

Creating an ALIAS element for the Genero Application Server is similar to creating an alias on a Web server. When you create an alias, you are creating a virtual directory. Any document you wish to publish should be in a directory that can be published; the alias is a mechanism for publishing a directory. Just as a Web browser uses an alias to publish content, the Genero Front End uses the alias to publish content required by the Front End application (such as images, cascading style sheets, html, and JavaScript).

Why specify an alias?

• Most aliases are shorter than the actual path name of the directory.
• An alias is more secure; users do not know where your files are physically located and cannot use that information to modify your files.
• Aliases make it easier for you to relocate directories for your site. Rather than of changing the path for the directory within your configuration files and templates, you simply change the mapping between the alias and the physical location of the directory.

Syntax:

Notes:

When creating an ALIAS element, you specify the alias path with the Id attribute and you provide the physical path as the element's value.

1. aliasPath is the name of the alias.
2. physicalPath is the physical directory path.

Example:

<INTERFACE_TO_CONNECTOR>
 <TCP_BASE_PORT>6300</TCP_BASE_PORT>
 <TCP_PORT_OFFSET>94</TCP_PORT_OFFSET>
 <DOCUMENT_ROOT>$(res.path.docroot)</DOCUMENT_ROOT>
 <ALIAS Id="/fjs/pics">/fjs/gas/web/fjs/pics</ALIAS>
</INTERFACE_TO_CONNECTOR>

In the example shown above, if the client requests the file /fjs/pics/myimage.png, the Genero Application Server returns myimage.png, found in the server directory /fjs/gas/web/fjs/pics.

For more information on working with images, see Picture Component - Configuration Reference.

Note: Some aliases are not taken into account if they are not defined in the right order. If alias X is a substring of alias Y, the aliases must be defined in order by the length of the alias path, from longest to shortest. For example:

• X is the alias /myapp for directory /xxx/test.
• Y is the alias /myapp/images for directory /yyy/images.

The definition of alias Y (/myapp/images) must appear before the definition of alias X (/myapp) to allow you to reach files in the physical path /yyy/images.