Consistent URL endings

[fsimonis]

We are mixing .html with more modern endling-less URLs, which leads to confusion in search engines as they are indexed as separate pages.

We should decide which version we want to stick to, make it consistent and ideally enforce it.

Example:

• https://precice.org/about and https://precice.org/about.html serve the same about.html.
• https://precice.org/ , https://precice.org/index and https://precice.org/index.html serve the index.html

What we need to choose:

1. without ending https://precice.org/about
2. with ending https://precice.org/about.html

What we need to do after the decision:

• Adjust canonical metadata
• Fix sitemap (may require changing permalinks)
• Fix links

[MakisH]

What happens to links from external resources? Can we have redirects both in case we rename about -> about.html and about.html -> about?

[fsimonis]

I am honestly not sure. This behaviour seems to dependent on how the HTTP-server is configured.

[Aayushman-nvm]

After reviewing the current setup, it appears that .html URLs are explicitly enforced via permalink: about.html, with extensionless paths configured as redirects.

Since migration to Hugo is being considered, and Hugo defaults to extensionless (“pretty”) URLs, it may be cleaner to standardize on extensionless URLs already in Jekyll.

This would:

• Avoid changing canonical URL policy twice (once now, once during migration)
• Align early with Hugo’s default behavior
• Simplify migration
• Reduce long-term maintenance complexity

A possible approach:

• Remove explicit .html permalinks in Jekyll
• Use pretty permalinks (/about/) as canonical
• Redirect /about.html → /about/
• Update canonical metadata and sitemap accordingly

During migration to Hugo, this structure would map naturally to Hugo’s default output, with optional aliases added for any remaining legacy .html URLs.

Would it make sense to standardize on extensionless URLs already at the Jekyll stage to avoid duplicated effort later?

[MakisH]

@Aayushman-nvm I commented on the issue. Besides the comments there, I think it is a bit too early to address this, and I would rather only look at it in the context of the migration. There are no related issues with the running system at the moment.

[Aayushman-nvm]

@MakisH I understand, thanks for the review by the way. 😄

[MakisH]

In the Hugo state (as of #979), http://localhost:1313/about.html would automatically redirect to http://localhost:1313/about/. The same for all other pages I tested.