--- title: Writing page path expressions related: - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/loading-and-displaying-data-on-websites/loading-page-data.md - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/configuring-kentico/configuring-page-urls/setting-page-aliases.md - https://docs.kentico.com/k11/configuring-kentico/configuring-page-urls.md --- > Agent instructions: > **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown. > > - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version. > - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt). Path expressions allow you to select a set of pages from the content tree of Kentico websites. The expressions are based on the [alias path](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/configuring-kentico/configuring-page-urls/setting-page-aliases.md) values of pages. You can use two types of path values: - Exact paths of individual pages - Expressions containing special characters that specify multiple pages or relative paths You need to use path expressions in the **Path** property of [web parts](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/developing-websites-using-the-portal-engine/using-and-configuring-web-parts.md) or controls that load data from pages (page data sources, page listings with built-in data sources, [navigation components](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/loading-and-displaying-data-on-websites/building-website-navigation.md)). ## Using wildcard characters (% and \_) The **% wildcard represents any number of characters**.Add the wildcard to the end of the path to select all pages under the specified section of the site. Examples: - **/** - only the root page - **/%** - all pages - **/Products** - only the _Products_ page - **/Products/%** - all child pages under the _Products_ page The \_ **wildcard represents a single character**. For example: - **/Product\_** - selects pages _/ProductA_, _/Product1_, _Product2_ etc. > **Tip:** **Escaping wildcards in paths** > > If you need to use the wildcards as standard characters inside path expressions, enclose the character inside brackets (\[ ]). For example: > > - **/Special\[\_]Offers -** selects the _Special\_Offers_ page ## Using relative paths You can use relative paths expressions to **select child pages or parent pages**. Examples: - **.** - the current page's path - **..** - the path of the current page's parent - **./Product** - page _Product_ under the current path - **../Product** - page _Product_ under the parent page of the current path - **./%** - all pages under the current path (or selection of the current page, see _Leaving the Path value empty_ below) - **../%** - all pages under the parent page of the current path ## Leaving the Path value empty If you leave the path value empty, the behavior depends on the type of the component and other variables. #### Navigation components For [navigation components](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/loading-and-displaying-data-on-websites/building-website-navigation.md) (such as the **CSS list menu** web part), an empty value always sets the path to all pages (equivalent of /%). #### Standard page data sources General web parts and controls with page data sources perform one of the following actions if you leave the Path property empty: - **Selection of the current page** - the component loads and displays only the current page using the _Selected item_ [transformation](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/loading-and-displaying-data-on-websites/writing-transformations.md) (if specified). - **Loading of child pages** - equivalent of _/%_. All [filtering options](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/loading-and-displaying-data-on-websites/loading-page-data.md) specified for the data source still apply. The behavior depends on the following conditions: \* Whether the listing component's **Page types (ClassNames)** property includes the current page's [page type](https://docs.kentico.com/k11/developing-websites/defining-website-content-structure/page-types.md). **Note**: An empty value includes all page types.\ \*\* If the current page type has the **Behaves as Page (menu item) type** flag enabled (_Page types -> Edit the page type -> General_). | Page type match (\*) | Behaves as Page (menu item) type flag (\*\*) | Empty path behavior | | -------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | | | Selection of the current page | | | | Loading of child pages | | | | Loading of child pages | | | | The data source does not load any data at all | > **Note:** For standard page data sources, the **./%** path expression works exactly the same way as an empty path value. ## Getting parts of the current path You can use special expressions to **extract parts of the current page's path**. - {0} - the alias of the page on the first level of the current path - {1} - the page alias of the current path's second level - ... For example, if the page path is: _**/Company/Careers/USA-Branch/Development/QA-Engineer**_ - **{0}** = Company - **{1}** = Careers - **{3}** = Development Path examples: - **/{0}/{1}/%** - all pages under the second level of the current path - **/{0}/{1}/Details** - page _Details_ on the third level of the current path > **Note:** **Note**: If you attempt to extract a level that does not exist in the current page's path: > > - The expression returns an empty value. > - If there is a slash (/) after the expression, the system removes it when resolving the overall path.