Informing is the process of providing the UrlState object with information about the current query results.

From this information, the UrlState object creates either a NavStateUrlParam if the query results are from a navigation query, an ERecUrlParam if the query results are from a record detail query, or an AggrERecUrlParam if the query results are from an aggregated record detail query.

The SeoUrlFormatter can use the extra information in these objects to generate customized URLs based on the current navigation state or properties and dimensions associated with these results.

To inform a UrlState of the current navigation state:

You can generate properly formatted URLs representing either the current navigation state, a record detail link, or an aggregated record detail link. Note that of these three possiblities, only the record detail link is guaranteed to be complete when calling inform on an empty UrlState. A navigation URL would be correct but, without further modification, only reflects the selected dimension values (the N parameter values). An aggregated record detail URL would not work without adding the required An and Au parameters.

The intent of the inform() method is to give the UrlFormatter and UrlState access to property and dimension information, not to copy your query. In some cases a complete query URL can only be created through a combination of using UrlFormatter.parseRequest() on the initial request and calling UrlState.setParam() as needed in addition to using inform().