Creating a path alias from page title content - Urlify vs Pathauto Drupal Modules

There are overwhelming reasons to NOT use the dynamically generated paths that Web Content Management System (CMS) or any other ECM or document management. Whether it's for SEO or for human users to be able to track and access content based on URL paths, it is always important to create short, content subject related URL paths that are easy to manage.

Various web server platforms feature various ways to handle and translate paths between the dynamic data laden path, to the desirable user-friendly path. In Drupal (running on Apache â?? mod-rewrite or IIS with ISAPI rewrite), the Path module enables the content creator and manager to define and control a path alias for every content item (node).

In addition to this basic facility to define and manage the alias, there are other modules and additions that make it easy and to an extent automate the creation of path aliases based on already existing descriptive information such as a node title, or descriptions.

Pathauto Module

The pathauto module generates a URL path from the title of a page an it has been notoriously deemed as the cause of some performance issues in the earlier versions of Drupal 4.6. In addition, it generates very long aliases based on all the contents of a node title and this makes the aliases difficult to handle and remember (although it may be an advantage when it comes to SEO).

Urlify Module

The Urlify module in Drupal generates a URL based on the words in the node title based on some rules that can be created in the module settings to exclude certain common words that rarely carry any unique meaning for a page (such as: and, or, not, maybe, etc).

Comparison or pathauto and urlify

The main difference between urlify and pathauto is that unlike pathauto, urilfy generates the alias as a suggestion pre-populated into the alias section that the content publisher can edit before publishing the content. This is an advantage in that it allows control and oversight. Urlify handles aliases on a none-by-one basis (which may be considered slow); but it makes for cleaner and more responsible URL creation.

Pathauto automates the creation of path aliases, but this seemingly efficient process leaves the entire process to software functions that do not regard the nuances and considerations or Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) that a human editor will take into consideration. Considering that URL path aliases are meant for human readers, it is recommended to use an approach that allows for page by age (node by node) determination of the path alias.