Why move a page (or tree of pages)? Perhaps it was created at the top level of the site instead of in the proper place in the site hierarchy. Perhaps you're reorganizing existing documentation. Or maybe you need to archive obsolete content. For these reasons, MDN has a page move function, which can move not just one page, but a page and all its subpages.
The page move tool lets an editor change the URL or slug of a document, and all its sub-pages, in the MDN tree. It is a powerful tool that is very handy when reorganizing pages, or fixing incorrectly positioned pages.
Note: Only users with special privileges can move pages on MDN. If you don't see the Move this page option on the Advanced (
) menu, you don't have the needed privilege to use it. See Restricted access below to find out about gaining this privilege.
How to move pages
To move a page or tree of pages:
- Open the Advanced () menu near the top-right corner of the MDN page you wish to move.
- Click Move this page. The "Move page" screen appears, which looks something like this:
At the top, in large all-caps, you see the title of the page you're preparing to move, followed by a list of tips and reminders about how to properly fill out the form for moving the page. Although the page title is editable here, changing it does not actually work. Any changes made to the page title here will not be applied. See bug 828533 for the status of this issue. - Next to New Slug, fill out the full slug you want to move your page to. Above the edit box is the Preview URL, which shows the full URL that the page will have after being moved, assuming you use the current New Slug value.
- Look at the list of all the subpages that will be affected by the move operation, under the Move N pages and Cancel buttons. If there are no subpages, there is a note saying so. This list can help you determine if your page move is likely to have unanticipated side effects. Be careful to avoid moving popular content, or performing moves of large numbers of pages all at once.
- Once you're sure everything's configured just the way you want it, click the Move N pages button. This starts an asynchronous, background process that moves each page and places a redirect at the original location of the page, so that the old URL continues to work via redirect. You'll receive an email once the move process is complete; the email includes a link you can click to get to the base page's new location.
Restricted access
There is obvious potential for doing harm by moving content to strange places, so this tool is not available to all users.
Roles that have this privilege
Conditions for gaining this privilege
You can obtain access to this tool if you meet the following conditions:
- You have a regular need for it (for example, if you frequently need to move pages or are working on a significant refactoring of a topic). If you only occasionally need to move pages, just ask an admin to do it.
- You edit MDN regularly, and are familiar with our page naming conventions.
- You are vouched by two "page move peers" (see below) and there is no veto from any of them.
See Requesting elevated privileges for the process for gaining this privilege.
Page move peers
- Current peers: Sheppy, Jswisher, teoli, fscholz, wbamberg, chrisdavidmills, Jeremie.
- New peers can be added or removed by agreement among between the existing peers.