More than one path alias per node

Question

I have a ticketing system where the path aliases are set like ticket/[node ID], e.g. http://example.com/ticket/1234.

I would like to create multiple path aliases for the same node, and be able to access it also as discussion/[node ID], e.g. http://example.com/discussion/1234.

I will be using different node templates basing on the path.

Is there any way to set multiple path aliases for the same node?

Answer 1

To have a working code example for the routing approach.

First in MYMODULE.routing.yml write:

ticket.view:
  path: '/ticket/{node}'
  defaults:
    _controller: '\Drupal\node\Controller\NodeViewController::view'
  requirements:
    node: \d+
    _entity_access: 'node.view'
discussion.view:
  path: '/discussion/{node}'
  defaults:
    _controller: '\Drupal\node\Controller\NodeViewController::view'
  requirements:
    node: \d+
    _entity_access: 'node.view'

Then in MYMODULE.module you'ld add template suggestions like so:

/**
 * Implements hook_theme_suggestions_HOOK_alter().
 */
function MYMODULE_theme_suggestions_node_alter(array &$suggestions, array $variables) {

  if (\Drupal::routeMatch()->getRouteName() == 'ticket.view') {
    $suggestions[] = 'ticket'; // Would take ticket.html.twig
  }

  if (\Drupal::routeMatch()->getRouteName() == 'discussion.view') {
    $suggestions[] = 'discussion'; // Would take discussion.html.twig
  }

}

Or maybe if all it takes are some different styles simply add a body class depending on the route:

/**
 * Implements hook_preprocess_HOOK().
 */
function MYMODULE_preprocess_html(&$variables) {

  if (\Drupal::routeMatch()->getRouteName() == 'ticket.view') {
    $variables['attributes']['class'][] = 'ticket';
  }

  if (\Drupal::routeMatch()->getRouteName() == 'discussion.view') {
    $variables['attributes']['class'][] = 'discussion';
  }

}

Last but not least check out this brilliant article https://thinkshout.com/blog/2016/07/drupal-8-routing-tricks-for-better-admin-urls/, there are some more route goodies inside you may like.

Answer 2

You can set multiple path aliases for one node, this is no problem. If you can't do it with Pathauto, then it's possible with custom code when saving the node.

But in your case it might be more efficient to set up different routes for /ticket/{node} and /discussion/{node}. You can either set a fixed route parameter or use a custom node controller to set a marker, that you can use in theme name suggestion to choose the custom template.

Another solution would be to set up a View with a contextual filter for the node and two displays with different paths. Choose for each a different view mode to get different templates. Technically it's almost the same, but you need no custom module, because Views sets up the routes for you.

Answer 3

Even better approach would be to still use custom routes and set different display modes for each route. With this you will have all the theme support from core with small to zero amount of custom code.