External URLs can be managed manually in documents of type External Link (technical type CMExternalLink).

A value in field URL of these documents is checked for valid URL syntax. If property url-validator.strict is set to true for the Studio Server, the URL is also validated for proper encoding. The URL validator will then report URLs with special characters (non-ASCII) as invalid. Examples:

By default, the encoding is not checked.

Your sites can be configured to sanitize special characters (non-ASCII) in URLs from External Link documents for delivery by the Content Application Engine. For this, a boolean content setting sanitize-external-links is available. If set to true, non-ASCII characters in External Link URLs will be properly encoded for delivery (see examples above). Default is false so that URLs are delivered as-is. To activate, add boolean content setting sanitize-external-links to the settings of your sites’ root pages in Studio and tick the checkbox on each.

Note that while http(s) URLs will be properly encoded according to general rules (punycode for domain, percent-encoding for all other parts), other schemes (like mailto) may not be handled properly and may need to be encoded manually before entering them in Studio.

The Headless Server does not support this sanitization and will deliver External Link URLs as-is.