Customizing Node URLs in Drupal with Bundle Classes for Greater Flexibility

Drupal offers granular control over node URLs, allowing developers to customize links or remove them entirely, as Daniel Flanagan explains in a Horizontal blog post. While Drupal's core Path module and contributed modules like Pathauto provide flexible URL management, custom solutions may be needed in specific cases. 

For example, Horizontal's team encountered challenges when creating a "Feature" content type where nodes should link to external URLs or have no URL at all. By implementing a custom bundle class, they leveraged Drupal's flexibility to meet these requirements without adding complexity to the theming layer. Although a few patches were necessary to resolve issues with Redirect, Path, and Pathauto modules, the approach allowed them to tailor URL behaviour precisely to their needs.