URL modification with Smoothwalls Content Modification feature

Smoothwalls content modification feature can come in really handy if you need to be able to always direct users to certain parts of a website, or change URL parameters on the fly.

Here’s how to set up a content modification rule in Smoothwall Framlington 3 edition.

1. Firstly, lets enable the advanced features of the Guardian section. Log in to your smoothwall using an SSH client. Enter the following command to enable the advanced features.

   echo 1 > /modules/guardian3/settings/ui/blocklist/advanced

2. Next pop to your Smoothwall web interface and go to Guardian > Content Modification > Content Modifications. Name your content mod and click Advanced.
3. Content mods use reg expression so you need to escape any non-text characters with the backslash symbol (\). In this example I’m going to force any visitors to my site to show the malware tag list. Enter the following text in to the URL modifications box and then click save.The structure is always “original-url-string.com”->”new-url-string.com”

   "olivermarshall.net"->"olivermarshall.net\/tag\/malware"
   

   You should end up with something like this;
   
   

4. Now click Guardian > Content Modification > Policy Wizard to create a new policy. Walk through each step creating the policy as required. In Step 4 choose the Apply option and choose your Content Mod definition. Click confirm.
5. Now go to Guardian > Content Modification > Manage Policies Wizard. You should see that the policy is enabled and ready to go.
6. Visit your chosen site with the URL you used in your content mod and you should see that your URL is being modified on the fly. Here I go to “olivermarshall.net” but I’m always shown the posts tagged with malware.