Magento controller redirect star notation

Question

Can someone explain the star slash notation used throughout magento controllers for redirecting?

The use by core code seems to be inconsistent and I cant find any decent docs out there that can explain the most correct use of this notation.

In the event that there is any doubt over what i am asking.

It is this style of redirect:

$this->_redirect('/');
$this->_redirect('*/*/');
$this->_redirect('*/*');

Answer 1

From left to right:

• frontname (associated with a router)
• controller
• action

When an asterisk is specified, it will use the -current- value of those above.

So assuming you are on adminhtml/catalog/list page, a redirect to */*/something will take you to adminhtml/catalog/something, etc :)