You beat me to this question Judy!  I know how to do URL shortcuts, but I'm curious how/why Joseph Jamison has it set up this way?

Tammy Triplett We do this for a few reasons. Keep in mind anything within URL Manager is only used for external links. Think tools and resources that are not housed within our Igloo. This is why the Igloo - Redirects are not an option for us. 

1. It gives us a single source for all links. We've found that are most popular links can sometimes be replicated over 1200 times within our Igloo. Meaning if we change that specific link, for any reason at all,  those 1200 references are dead. 
2. Since we're introducing a middle man (wiki container), we get the benefits of having metrics surrounding that container. This is something you would not get without the redirect in place, since the content typically points to something outside of Igloo. 
3. The source of discovery (see google analytics photos) helps us understand how and where users are finding the link. Are they coming from the homepage? A communication? Did they discover it within content that is buried in a policy article? We wouldn't know that behavior path unless we have the source. This method gives us that information. Also, our Quick Links and homepage real estate can get political and competitive. Everyone wants to be on the homepage to get more eyeballs. The wiki gives us data to suggest if users truly need/want a specific shortcut or if it's better suited on a secondary page. 

See the example below: Our wiki article points to our benefits portal.

High level metrics: Helps us understand the traffic.

Sources: Helps us understand where the user is finding the URL above. This information tells us if the clicked from Igloo, Communications, or another tool within Cigna. 

Hope this helps?

Joseph Jamison Yes, this is very helpful.  I wasn't thinking about internal vs. external to the platform.  Also, I see the complexity of the links being replicated in many places.  We have some of that, but our major external platforms are incorporated into our fat footer ... where we can track metrics.

Joseph Jamison, what path are you following to get to this information in GA? 

sure! I'm going to outline the process then attach a video. 

1. Create a Wiki channel

2. Create a new article or wiki container. 

3. Within the article, navigate to the Actions menu > select Advanced

4. Paste the script , be sure to change the URL (Script is below)

5. Save the article

6. Distribute your new wiki URL. The URL will look like this...

• https://your_igloo_name/url_manager/google_test

Script for Advanced:

<script type="text/javascript">

//<![CDATA[

(function($) {

  if (!$('body').hasClass('system')) {

    window.location.href = 'https://www.google.com/';

  }

})(jQuery);

//]]>

</script>

Good call, video attached. 

Joseph Jamison Thank you so much!  I'm going to be implementing this right away.

Igloo Support  - Can I have a folder channel to drop a video file? I'll embed within my response. 

Joseph Jamison  - You can attach your video to your comment and at the same time embed it in your comment without uploading it into a folder.

Hello Joseph Jamison, 

As Tammy Triplett noted, what you can do is attach the video, open that attachment up, and copy the embed code for that attachment. You can then embed that video into a comment. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
Emma

I'm still curious why you do it this way and not in via the URL shortcuts in the control panel?

Tammy Triplett Unless I'm mistaken, the URL shortcuts will not allow you to create a shortcut to an external site.

Judy Headrick Correct.  I forgot about that in my earlier comment.

Joseph Jamison this is an incredible solution and worth it for the metrics of click throughs alone. I can think of multiple instances in which we would use this and I'm about to set up a test now. Thank you for sharing! 

Molly Sproatt Awesome, hope it helps!

Joseph Jamison I might be missing something simple, but how exactly can you edit the wiki when it's always redirecting?

Ginger Avenali - at the end of the URL string - plugin ?action=edit. This will put you directly to the edit page for the specific container.  

Joseph Jamison Perfect! I also just realized you could surface the wiki index on a page and make sure the Action button is selected, but your way definitely takes away that extra step. Thank you so much!!

Ginger Avenali - even better! I'll start using this.