Handling a sub site within htmly from menu

[russellii]

I have some code that is in a sub directory off the main site. https://site.com
so I added a menu option to call it https://site.com/mysite/work.html
it failed because it added a trailing "/" https://site.com/mysite/work.html/
and so the URL with a trailing slash is not a file and as such /mysite/work.html/ is passed as a post value.

I fixed it locally by editing the slashUrl function in system/includes/functions.php
and adding a check for file extension

function slashUrl($url)
{
    $stripped = rtrim($url, '/');
    // Don't add trailing slash if the URL ends with a file extension (e.g. .html, .php)
    if (preg_match('/\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}$/', $stripped)) {
        return $stripped;
    }
    return $stripped . '/';
}

is there a better way, that I missed?

[shreyanshjain1]

Your local fix looks reasonable to me.

From the behavior you described, the real problem seems to be that slashUrl() is treating every menu URL like a page/path route, when in your case the menu item is actually pointing to a real file (work.html), so forcing a trailing slash is the wrong normalization there.

So I’d say the important distinction is:

• route/page URL → trailing slash can make sense
• direct file URL (.html, .php, .pdf, etc.) → trailing slash should usually not be added

Because of that, checking for a file extension before appending / feels like a perfectly sensible fix.

Honestly, I’d prefer something very close to what you already did:

function slashUrl($url)
{
    $stripped = rtrim($url, '/');

    if (preg_match('/\.[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,5}$/', $stripped)) {
        return $stripped;
    }

    return $stripped . '/';
}

The only thing I’d maybe think about is whether you want this to apply only to internal menu links or more generally anywhere slashUrl() is used, because if that helper is used globally, then the change affects all URL normalization, not just menu items.

So short version:

• I dont think you missed anything obvious
• your fix direction seems correct
• the only real question is whether the check belongs in slashUrl() globally, or slightly higher up where menu links are being processed

But conceptually, yes — file-like URLs should probly be exempt from forced trailing slashes.