Remove column from articles URL (see #6594)

Description
-----------

While preparing for the _Content URL Generator_, I noticed this: did you know that (sometimes) Contao generates the URL to an article as `.../articles/section:alias` and not just `.../articles/alias`?

The reason behind this is, that `Controller::getFrontendModule` will ignore the articles parameter if it does not belong the the given column (section). **However**, this was

a) not applied in all place
b) totally unnecessary because we can achieve the same correct thing without having it in the URL (see PR code)
c) allowed for URL manipulation, I could theoretically generate an article in the wrong section (not saying that would be a real problem, but … )

This PR removes the need for passing the section in the article alias, because it was irrelevant to most places anyway. This makes generating the URL of an article easier and probably also fixes bugs because no third-party developer I know would currently have generated a correct URL 😅

Commits
-------

6713bfe Remove column from articles URL
d4f7559 Also adjust the `Controller::redirectToFrontendPage()` method

Co-authored-by: leofeyer <1192057+leofeyer@users.noreply.github.com>

core-bundle/contao/elements/ContentTeaser.php

@@ -66,17 +66,9 @@ public function generate()
 	 */
 	protected function compile()
 	{
-		$link = '/articles/';
 		$objArticle = $this->objArticle;
 
-		if ($objArticle->inColumn != 'main')
-		{
-			$link .= $objArticle->inColumn . ':';
-		}
-
-		$link .= $objArticle->alias ?: $objArticle->id;
-		$this->Template->href = $this->objParent->getFrontendUrl($link);
-
+		$this->Template->href = $this->objParent->getFrontendUrl('/articles/' . ($objArticle->alias ?: $objArticle->id));
 		$this->Template->text = $objArticle->teaser;
 		$this->Template->headline = $objArticle->title;
 		$this->Template->readMore = StringUtil::specialchars(sprintf($GLOBALS['TL_LANG']['MSC']['readMore'], $objArticle->title));

core-bundle/contao/library/Contao/Controller.php

@@ -304,24 +304,25 @@ public static function getFrontendModule($intId, $strColumn='main')
 			// Show a particular article only
 			if ($objPage->type == 'regular' && Input::get('articles'))
 			{
-				list($strSection, $strArticle) = explode(':', Input::get('articles')) + array(null, null);
+				$strArticle = Input::get('articles');
 
-				if ($strArticle === null)
+				if (str_contains($strArticle, ':'))
 				{
-					$strArticle = $strSection;
-					$strSection = 'main';
+					trigger_deprecation('contao/core-bundle', '5.3', 'Passing the column of an article in the URL is deprecated. Only provide the article alias instead.');
+
+					list(, $strArticle) = explode(':', Input::get('articles'));
 				}
 
-				if ($strSection == $strColumn)
-				{
-					$objArticle = ArticleModel::findPublishedByIdOrAliasAndPid($strArticle, $objPage->id);
+				$objArticle = ArticleModel::findPublishedByIdOrAliasAndPid($strArticle, $objPage->id);
 
-					// Send a 404 header if there is no published article
-					if (null === $objArticle)
-					{
-						throw new PageNotFoundException('Page not found: ' . Environment::get('uri'));
-					}
+				// Send a 404 header if there is no published article
+				if (null === $objArticle)
+				{
+					throw new PageNotFoundException('Page not found: ' . Environment::get('uri'));
+				}
 
+				if ($objArticle->inColumn == $strColumn)
+				{
 					// Send a 403 header if the article cannot be accessed
 					if (!static::isVisibleElement($objArticle))
 					{
@@ -1204,9 +1205,9 @@ protected function redirectToFrontendPage($intPage, $strArticle=null, $blnReturn
 		$strParams = null;
 
 		// Add the /article/ fragment (see #673)
-		if ($strArticle !== null && ($objArticle = ArticleModel::findByAlias($strArticle)) !== null)
+		if ($strArticle)
 		{
-			$strParams = '/articles/' . (($objArticle->inColumn != 'main') ? $objArticle->inColumn . ':' : '') . $strArticle;
+			$strParams = '/articles/' . $strArticle;
 		}
 
 		$strUrl = $objPage->getPreviewUrl($strParams);

core-bundle/contao/modules/ModuleArticle.php

@@ -138,12 +138,9 @@ protected function compile()
 				$this->cssID = $arrCss;
 			}
 
-			$article = $this->alias ?: $this->id;
-			$href = '/articles/' . (($this->inColumn != 'main') ? $this->inColumn . ':' : '') . $article;
-
 			$this->Template->teaserOnly = true;
 			$this->Template->headline = $this->headline;
-			$this->Template->href = $objPage->getFrontendUrl($href);
+			$this->Template->href = $objPage->getFrontendUrl('/articles/' . ($this->alias ?: $this->id));
 			$this->Template->teaser = $this->teaser ?? '';
 			$this->Template->readMore = StringUtil::specialchars(sprintf($GLOBALS['TL_LANG']['MSC']['readMore'], $this->headline), true);
 			$this->Template->more = $GLOBALS['TL_LANG']['MSC']['more'];
@@ -152,9 +149,7 @@ protected function compile()
 		}
 
 		// Get section and article alias
-		$chunks = explode(':', Input::get('articles') ?? '');
-		$strSection = $chunks[0] ?? null;
-		$strArticle = $chunks[1] ?? $strSection;
+		$strArticle = Input::get('articles');
 
 		// Overwrite the page metadata (see #2853, #4955 and #87)
 		if (!$this->blnNoMarkup && $strArticle && ($strArticle == $this->id || $strArticle == $this->alias) && $this->title)

core-bundle/contao/modules/ModuleBreadcrumb.php

@@ -163,28 +163,15 @@ protected function compile()
 				'data'     => $pages[0]->row(),
 			);
 
-			list($strSection, $strArticle) = explode(':', Input::get('articles')) + array(null, null);
-
-			if ($strArticle === null)
-			{
-				$strArticle = $strSection;
-			}
-
-			$objArticle = ArticleModel::findByIdOrAlias($strArticle);
-			$strAlias = $objArticle->alias ?: $objArticle->id;
-
-			if ($objArticle->inColumn != 'main')
-			{
-				$strAlias = $objArticle->inColumn . ':' . $strAlias;
-			}
+			$objArticle = ArticleModel::findByIdOrAlias(Input::get('articles'));
 
 			if ($objArticle !== null)
 			{
 				$items[] = array
 				(
 					'isRoot'   => false,
 					'isActive' => true,
-					'href'     => $this->getPageFrontendUrl($pages[0], '/articles/' . $strAlias),
+					'href'     => $this->getPageFrontendUrl($pages[0], '/articles/' . ($objArticle->alias ?: $objArticle->id)),
 					'title'    => StringUtil::specialchars($objArticle->title, true),
 					'link'     => $objArticle->title,
 					'data'     => $objArticle->row(),

core-bundle/src/Controller/ContentElement/TeaserController.php

@@ -35,17 +35,9 @@ protected function getResponse(FragmentTemplate $template, ContentModel $model,
 
         [$article, $page] = $articleAndPage;
 
-        $href = $page->getFrontendUrl(
-            sprintf(
-                '/articles/%s%s',
-                'main' !== $article->inColumn ? "$article->inColumn:" : '',
-                $article->alias ?: $article->id,
-            ),
-        );
-
         $template->set('article', $article);
         $template->set('page', $page);
-        $template->set('href', $href);
+        $template->set('href', $page->getFrontendUrl('/articles/'.($article->alias ?: $article->id)));
 
         return $template->getResponse();
     }

core-bundle/src/EventListener/PreviewUrlConvertListener.php

@@ -88,7 +88,7 @@ private function getParams(Request $request, int $pageId): string|null
         }
 
         // Add the /article/ fragment (see contao/core-bundle#673)
-        return sprintf('/articles/%s%s', 'main' !== $article->inColumn ? $article->inColumn.':' : '', $article->alias);
+        return '/articles/'.($article->alias ?: $article->id);
     }
 
     private function getFragmentUrl(Request $request, PageModel $pageModel): string