From fc1e08946c6df9c7f312606ce35107e12a049232 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: milanmajchrak <milan.majchrak@dataquest.sk>
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2026 15:33:30 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] TUL/Exclude /browse, /search and admin paths from SSR (port
 of upstream #4332)

Crawlers were feeding on SSR-rendered /browse pages: DSpace reflects
unknown query params into generated links, and non-decoding crawlers
turn the escaped separator into ever-growing amp;value params - an
infinite URL space. On 7.5 every such URL is a full SSR render (~21
backend calls), which took the site down on Aug 6-9.

Ports upstream dspace-7_x PR #4332 (excludePathPatterns) natively:
excluded paths are served as CSR shell with no links to follow.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 server.ts                                  | 18 +++++++++++++++++-
 src/config/universal-config.interface.ts   | 10 ++++++++++
 src/environments/environment.production.ts | 21 ++++++++++++++++++++-
 src/environments/environment.test.ts       | 21 ++++++++++++++++++++-
 src/environments/environment.ts            | 21 ++++++++++++++++++++-
 5 files changed, 87 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/server.ts b/server.ts
index 3e10677a8b1..bb8a0b34cf3 100644
--- a/server.ts
+++ b/server.ts
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ import { APP_CONFIG, AppConfig } from './src/config/app-config.interface';
 import { extendEnvironmentWithAppConfig } from './src/config/config.util';
 import { logStartupMessage } from './startup-message';
 import { TOKENITEM } from 'src/app/core/auth/models/auth-token-info.model';
+import { SsrExcludePatterns } from './src/config/universal-config.interface';
 
 
 /*
@@ -228,7 +229,7 @@ export function app() {
  * The callback function to serve server side angular
  */
 function ngApp(req, res) {
-  if (environment.universal.preboot) {
+  if (environment.universal.preboot && req.method === 'GET' && (req.path === '/' || !isExcludedFromSsr(req.path, environment.universal.excludePathPatterns))) {
     // Render the page to user via SSR (server side rendering)
     serverSideRender(req, res);
   } else {
@@ -545,6 +546,21 @@ function start() {
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * Check if SSR should be skipped for path
+ *
+ * @param path
+ * @param excludePathPattern
+ */
+function isExcludedFromSsr(path: string, excludePathPattern: SsrExcludePatterns[]): boolean {
+  const patterns = excludePathPattern.map(p =>
+    new RegExp(p.pattern, p.flag || '')
+  );
+  return patterns.some((regex) => {
+    return regex.test(path)
+  });
+}
+
 /*
  * The callback function to serve health check requests
  */
diff --git a/src/config/universal-config.interface.ts b/src/config/universal-config.interface.ts
index c088dcd6579..90958e0c182 100644
--- a/src/config/universal-config.interface.ts
+++ b/src/config/universal-config.interface.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,17 @@
 import { Config } from './config.interface';
 
+export interface SsrExcludePatterns {
+  pattern: string | RegExp;
+  flag?: string;
+}
+
 export interface UniversalConfig extends Config {
   preboot: boolean;
   async: boolean;
   time: boolean;
+
+  /**
+   * Patterns to be used as regexes to match url's path and check if SSR is disabled for it.
+   */
+  excludePathPatterns: SsrExcludePatterns[];
 }
diff --git a/src/environments/environment.production.ts b/src/environments/environment.production.ts
index 09b5f19ade6..544066431cd 100644
--- a/src/environments/environment.production.ts
+++ b/src/environments/environment.production.ts
@@ -7,6 +7,25 @@ export const environment: Partial<BuildConfig> = {
   universal: {
     preboot: true,
     async: true,
-    time: false
+    time: false,
+    excludePathPatterns: [
+      {
+        pattern: '^/communities/[a-f0-9-]{36}/browse(/.*)?$',
+        flag: 'i',
+      },
+      {
+        pattern: '^/collections/[a-f0-9-]{36}/browse(/.*)?$',
+        flag: 'i',
+      },
+      { pattern: '^/browse/' },
+      { pattern: '^/search' },
+      { pattern: '^/community-list$' },
+      { pattern: '^/statistics/?' },
+      { pattern: '^/admin/' },
+      { pattern: '^/processes/?' },
+      { pattern: '^/notifications/' },
+      { pattern: '^/access-control/' },
+      { pattern: '^/health$' },
+    ],
   }
 };
diff --git a/src/environments/environment.test.ts b/src/environments/environment.test.ts
index 0bb36da61f3..abc19b23410 100644
--- a/src/environments/environment.test.ts
+++ b/src/environments/environment.test.ts
@@ -10,7 +10,26 @@ export const environment: BuildConfig = {
   universal: {
     preboot: true,
     async: true,
-    time: false
+    time: false,
+    excludePathPatterns: [
+      {
+        pattern: '^/communities/[a-f0-9-]{36}/browse(/.*)?$',
+        flag: 'i',
+      },
+      {
+        pattern: '^/collections/[a-f0-9-]{36}/browse(/.*)?$',
+        flag: 'i',
+      },
+      { pattern: '^/browse/' },
+      { pattern: '^/search' },
+      { pattern: '^/community-list$' },
+      { pattern: '^/statistics/?' },
+      { pattern: '^/admin/' },
+      { pattern: '^/processes/?' },
+      { pattern: '^/notifications/' },
+      { pattern: '^/access-control/' },
+      { pattern: '^/health$' },
+    ],
   },
 
   // Angular Universal server settings.
diff --git a/src/environments/environment.ts b/src/environments/environment.ts
index 67a586718de..6f3b8751e9c 100644
--- a/src/environments/environment.ts
+++ b/src/environments/environment.ts
@@ -12,7 +12,26 @@ export const environment: Partial<BuildConfig> = {
   universal: {
     preboot: false,
     async: true,
-    time: false
+    time: false,
+    excludePathPatterns: [
+      {
+        pattern: '^/communities/[a-f0-9-]{36}/browse(/.*)?$',
+        flag: 'i',
+      },
+      {
+        pattern: '^/collections/[a-f0-9-]{36}/browse(/.*)?$',
+        flag: 'i',
+      },
+      { pattern: '^/browse/' },
+      { pattern: '^/search' },
+      { pattern: '^/community-list$' },
+      { pattern: '^/statistics/?' },
+      { pattern: '^/admin/' },
+      { pattern: '^/processes/?' },
+      { pattern: '^/notifications/' },
+      { pattern: '^/access-control/' },
+      { pattern: '^/health$' },
+    ],
   },
 
   // The REST API server settings.