Some components require an absolute URL link that starts with a fully qualified domain name or a forward slash (/). Absolute URLs are constructed using the SiteLinkDroplet. Refer to the ATG Page Developer's Guide for further information on using this droplet.

Using the site base URL, the SiteLinkDroplet constructs a URL. Once a component obtains the site base URL, the component appends the site base URL with a relative path to generate the full absolute URL. If you are using a path-based URL strategy, the path or context root is used.

Production Server Link Generation

On a production server, the SiteLinkDroplet returns the site base URL fully qualified domain name. The path can be appended to the site base URL to create an absolute URL.

Staging Server Link Generation

Staging servers follows the same logic as the production server; however, the runtime site base URL cache may have been overwritten with transformed URL values using transformation rules. These transformed site base URL values have been transformed specifically for the staging server and are used by the SiteLinkDroplet in link generation.

Preview Server Link Generation

On a preview server, no URL pattern matching is performed and there are no transformation rules used. The SiteLinkDroplet on a preview server appends the pushSiteParam= query string to allow the preview server pipeline to address the request. The SiteLinkDroplet ignores the site base URL value but concatenates the additional path and the pushSiteParam query string variable for the domain, server name, or IP number.