Applying redirects

The router gets a URL from the user, either when she clicks on a link or updates the location bar directly. The first thing that router does with this URL is it will apply any redirects.

What is a redirect?

Note

A redirect is a substitution of a URL segment. Redirects can either be local or absolute. Local redirects replace a single segment with a different one. Absolute redirects replace the whole URL. Redirects are local unless you prefix the url with a slash.

The provided configuration has only one redirect rule: { path: '', pathMatch: 'full', redirectTo: '/inbox' }, i.e., replace / with /inbox. This redirect is absolute because the redirectTo value starts with a slash.

Since we are navigating to /inbox/33/messages/44 and not /, the router will not apply any redirects, and the URL will stay as is.