URL patterns

Patterns define how filters are recognized in SEO URLs.

Purpose

Patterns let you:

• Build clean URLs without filter keys
• Parse complex formats (price ranges, dates)
• Control parsing rule priority

URL examples

Type	URL	Pattern
Standard	/catalog/vendor_apple/	{key}_{value}
No key	/catalog/apple/	Custom pattern
Range	/catalog/price_1000-5000/	price_(\d+)-(\d+)
Multiple	/catalog/color_red,blue/	{key}_{value}(,{value})*

Patterns table

Column	Description
Pattern	Regular expression
Filter key	Which filter it belongs to
Description	Notes
Active	On/off
Order	Application priority

Creating a pattern

1. Basic fields

Field	Description
Pattern	Regex for URL segment
Filter key	Key from the filter set
Description	What the pattern is for
Active	Whether to use it

2. Pattern syntax

Uses PHP PCRE regex syntax.

Capturing values

# Single value
vendor_([a-z0-9-]+)

# Range
price_(\d+)-(\d+)

# Multiple values
color_([a-z0-9-]+(?:,[a-z0-9-]+)*)

Capture groups

• Group 1 — first value (or min for range)
• Group 2 — second value (or max for range)

Built-in patterns

Standard format

{key}_([a-z0-9-]+)

Matches: vendor_apple, color_red

Numeric range

{key}_(\d+)-(\d+)

Matches: price_1000-5000, weight_100-500

Multiple selection

{key}_([a-z0-9-]+(?:,[a-z0-9-]+)*)

Matches: color_red,blue,green

Priority

Patterns are applied in Order (rank):

1. Lower number first
2. First match wins for that segment
3. Others are skipped for that segment

Examples

Price pattern

Pattern: price_(\d+)-(\d+)
Key: price
Description: Price range

URL /catalog/price_10000-50000/ → price: {min: 10000, max: 50000}

Date pattern

Pattern: date_(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})_to_(\d{4})-(\d{2})-(\d{2})
Key: date
Description: Date range

URL /catalog/date_2024-01-01_to_2024-12-31/ → date range

No-key pattern (value only)

Pattern: ^(apple|samsung|xiaomi)$
Key: vendor
Description: Vendors directly

URL /catalog/apple/ → vendor: apple

Programmatic access

$mfilter = $modx->services->get('mfilter');
$urlRouter = $mfilter->getUrlRouter();

// Parse URL
$parsed = $urlRouter->parse('/catalog/vendor_apple/price_1000-5000/');
// [
//     'filters' => ['vendor' => ['apple'], 'price' => ['min' => 1000, 'max' => 5000]],
//     'tech' => ['sort' => 'price', 'page' => 1]
// ]

Debugging

Enable mfilter.debug to log:

• Which patterns are checked
• Which pattern matched
• Parse result

Tips

1. Test patterns — bad regex can break routing
2. Use priority — specific patterns should have a lower order number
3. Keep it simple — standard key_value format works for most cases