Some of the things people want to do live outside the intranet: the expenses system, the HR portal, a supplier’s booking site. You can still give them a task, so that they find it in search, on the How do I? page and in the A to Z, but have the intranet send them straight to the other site instead of showing a page. The same works for a news story or blog post that is really a link to something elsewhere.
This is available on tasks, news stories and blog posts: the three content types with a Format box on the edit screen. Pages, events, projects, vacancies and training courses cannot redirect.
Set up the redirect
- Create or edit the task, news story or blog post as usual: see Add or edit a task or Add or edit a news story.
- In the Format box on the right, choose Link. An External link box appears under the editor.
- Enter the full address in External link URL, starting with https://. It is required; you cannot save a Link-format post without it.
- Fill in the Excerpt with a line describing where the link goes. It is the only text of yours that people see, in listings and search results.
- Add categories, tags, keywords and A to Z letters as for any other task, then publish.
After you save, the main content editor is hidden, because nobody will see the content. Anything already written there is kept and comes back if you change the format to Standard again.
What people see
- In every listing, in search results and on category pages the title appears as normal with a small “leaves this site” arrow icon after it. The link goes to the intranet address of the task, which redirects to the external site straight away, so the address people share is the intranet one and you can change the destination later in one place.
- Opening the task in any way, including from a bookmark or the A to Z, redirects. There is no intranet page to see.
- The redirect opens in the same tab.
The redirect is a permanent one, which browsers remember. If you later change the URL, someone who has already followed the old one may keep arriving at the old address until their browser forgets it. When a destination changes, it is worth telling people to use the intranet link again.
Remove the redirect
Change the Format back to Standard and update. The External link box disappears and the content editor returns. The saved URL is kept but ignored.
Where the A to Z fits
An external task is listed in the A to Z like any other: see Add an item to the A to Z index. Because the A to Z is often where people look for systems by name, add the system’s name to the keywords in square brackets so that it appears under its own letter as well as under the task title.