Transition Config

This repository holds two things:

1. data/transition-sites - Configuration for sites being redirected to GOV.UK. This configuration is automatically loaded into the Transition app
2. tools/ - Miscellaneous scripts for updating tna_timestamps, configuring root domain redirects and generating mappings.

Sites

Each site is configured using a yaml file in the data/transition-sites directory:

Required:

• whitehall_slug — the slug used in Whitehall for the organisation which owns the site. Used for branding in Bouncer and access control in Transition.
• site — friendly name for the site
• host — primary hostname for site
• tna_timestamp — timestamp of the last good National Archives capture. eg 20131002172858
• homepage — URL for new site, used to redirect '/'. Must include the 'http' or 'https'.

Optional:

• homepage_title — site title for 404/410 pages. Defaults to organisation title. Should fit into the sentence: "Visit the new [title] site at [furl or homepage]"
• extra_organisation_slugs — additional organisations which own this site. Used for access control in Transition.
• homepage_furl — friendly URL displayed on 404/410 pages. Should redirect to the homepage. Doesn't need to include 'http' or 'https'.
• aliases — list of alias domains
• global — set a global redirect or archive for all paths
• css — a css class which determines the logo and brand colour used on 404/410 pages
• options — used to list significant querystrings for canonicalisation like this: --query-string first:second:third. A significant querystring is one which on the old website changes the content in a meaningful way - which we might therefore need to map to a different place.
• global_redirect_append_path — should the path the user supplied be appended to the URL for the global redirect?
• special_redirect_strategy — when the transition is partial, some tools or content will be left behind and managed by the previous supplier. This setting can be one of:
  • via_aka - the supplier is redirecting some paths to our aka domain.
  • supplier - the supplier is managing redirects to gov.uk. No traffic comes through Bouncer for this site.

Use rake new_site[abbr,whitehall_slug,host] to create a new site, e.g.

rake new_site[ukba,uk-border-agency,www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk]

Assets

We continue to serve some pages and assets for Directgov and BusinessLink sites. These are stored in GitHub and served by Bouncer's nginx configuration. See:

• assets-directgov
• assets-businesslink
• Bouncer's nginx configuration

Bouncer's nginx configuration also includes a small number of redirects and other behaviours not possible with mappings.