SharePoint 2010 Managed Paths

Here I am going to discuss “what is a Managed Path” and difference between Explicit Inclusion versus Wildcard Inclusion. 

Why use Managed Paths?

If you have a medium-scale or larger implementation, give serious consideration to extending the default set of managed paths. A managed path is defined as the path in the URI that is managed by SharePoint products. As an example, sites is the managed path in http://<site>/sites/madison. Managed paths cannot be limited for use by specific security groups, nor can they be targeted directly with audiences. They are simply a way to organize a large quantity of site collections.

When using managed paths, you can have two site collections with same name [i.e., 'Meetings']. For Example, http://<site>HR/Meetings and http://<site>Sales/Meetings [have the same site collection name of 'Meetings'].

When adding a new path, you have the option either to include only that path (explicit inclusion) or to specify that path and all subordinate paths (wildcard inclusion). If the path http:/<site>/sites was specified as an explicit inclusion, content could still be served from the WFE file system at http://<site>/sites/path. When creating an explicit inclusion managed path, you can then create a single site collection in the root of that path. If http://<site>/sites was specified as a wildcard inclusion, multiple named site collections could be created under that path.

If that didn't clear things up, then let's take it one step further. 

Source : Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Administrator's Pocket Consultant

Explicit Inclusion versus Wildcard Inclusion 

Explicit Inclusion

Includes only the specific path you set. Use explicit inclusions, for example, if you want Windows SharePoint Services to manage a specific path, such as /portal, but not any possible sites below it, such as /portal/webapp. 

Wildcard Inclusion

Includes any sites below the path you set, so you don't have to add them individually. This is the type of inclusion to use for Self-Service Site Creation, when you want users to be able to create top-level Web sites underneath a specific path, such as /sites. 

Example

For example, using an explicit inclusion, you are saying that http://<site>/team/ is a site collection without the possibility of any site collections below it; however, wildcard exclusion allows you to create site collections under http://<site>/team/

 

Conclusion

Having a solid understanding of Managed Paths is a definite must for any SharePoint administrator. Though, I'm sure I'll have to refer to my own blog post the next time I need to configure Managed Paths. 

Few Key points

• Managed Paths allow SharePoint to determine what portion of a given URL corresponds to the "site collection URL".
• Managed Paths can be defined per web application (and cannot be defined for host header site collections)
• Managed Paths can be "Explicit" or "Wildcard"
• Explicit Managed Paths allow a single spsite to be created at exactly the given url
• Wildcard Manage Paths allow unlimited spsites to be created under the given url – no spsite can be created at exactly that URL.
• Limit your managed paths to <20 per web application 

Enjoy!