On Relative Links and a Simplified URL structure

Question

I realised a few days back, that while using the most simplified URL structure, /123/why-do-birds-sing, relative links don't work! The simplest URL structure for which it works is /?qa=123/why-do-birds-sing, Here is the exact description of the problem that I sent to polarkernel just today. 

[...] This is because, in the /123/why-do-birds-sing format, if I am on say, /4636/technical-feature-requests, if I click on say, the attributions link, instead of being directed to /attributions-page, I am directed to /4636/attributions-page instead of /attributions-page.   

 

Or if I click on a link to say, /4606/can-we-install-comment-rating, then I am instead directed to /4636/4606/can-we-install-comment-rating. [...]  

One solution is that just before we go online, public, we make all the relative links absolute.    

However, this would be very time consuming. Is there a way to probably edit the htaccess file itself, so that the relative links are still correct?  

I have turned the simplest URL structure on for a while just so that you understand what I mean. Here are a few links: 

attributions-page

./attributions-page

/attributions-page

4606

./4606

/4606

Answer 1

This is a cautionary tale on the fact, that on a system which is that complex, changes should only be made if well understood and tested.

If we look at the source code of a page using this /123/why-do-birds-sing URL structure, we see that all relative links created by Q2A are now written as ../link, using a double-dot slash.

In order to rescue this situation, I have made a patch (fortunately possible within my OverSnow theme) that corrects all relative links in questions, answers and comments, so that the following types of links work correctly:

/attributions-page
./attributions-page
../attributions-page

/4657
./4657
../4657

This should repair almost everything. Links made by hand by us administrators, like those in the upper side-panel, have to be absolute. We will have to think on that if we move to go online.

Comments

Thanks! That greatly simplifies the work needed to do, and definitely saves the situation : )