Simple Machines Community Forum

Hi

I want to switch on SEO frindly URLs on one of my forums, which works fine on my server. But then I will be left with thousands of spidered 'dynamic' URLs.

So, does anyone know how to do mod_rewrite in the .htaccess file (or elsewhere), so that I can throw a 301 redirect from all the old dynamic urls to the new SEO friendly ones? Obviously, I don't want to have to write a separate redirect for for each url.  :-\

Any help, much appreciated.  :) 

It does this automatically.  If you have http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=60194.0 it will go to http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php/topic,60194.html.

Zitat von: JayBachatero in Dezember 11, 2005, 10:16:25 NACHMITTAGS
It does this automatically.  If you have http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=60194.0 it will go to http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php/topic,60194.html.

Hi JayBachatero

Thanks for that . But I'm sorry, that's not quite accurate. Or, at least, it's not what I was after.

What you are talking about is the way that URLs are displayed. When the SEO option is switched on, the displayed URLs are changed  - e.g. http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php/topic,60194.html. Which is great.

But if someone navigates to your site via the old dynamic URL (because it is listed somewhere as that) then it still displays that URL - e.g. http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=60194.0.

Because of that search engines will continue to display the old, incorrect, URL because the header code says that it is 200 OK. What needs to be done is for the old URL to throw a 301 http message in the header and redirect to the new SEO friendly URL, so that the search engines know that the new urls are being used. Otherwise they will just think that it is duplicate content.

I hope I am being clear. :)

Ok got you now.  I'm afraid that I can't help you with this but I'm sure will will get your answer from someone else here.

-JayBachatero

I hope so.

Thanks anyway.

Actually, I've just discovered this external forum topic specifically about mod_rewite and SMF (http://www.doriat.com/viewtopic.php?p=648#648).

http://www.doriat.com/viewtopic.php?p=648#648

I haven't tried the solution yet, but I'll report back if it works, in case anyone is interested.

If anyone has a simpler solution, I'm still interested. :)

That might work, but there are a couple of problems with that code:

1. It doesn't handle the start parameter (the part after the . that tells SMF what page or message we're viewing), so an attempt to access a specific page of a board or topic or a specific post within a topic would result in being redirected to the first page instead of the actual location.

2. It creates additional search engine friendly URLs for the profile and the search, which might not work properly and would result in extra redirection since SMF doesn't output the URLs this way.

This topic came up on another board a couple months ago. Here's the soultion I came up with (this one works both ways so if you ever decide to disable search engine friendly URLs, it will redirect the old URLs back to the correct ones).

index.php

Find
// Check if compressed output is enabled, supported, and not already being done.

Add before that:
if(empty($_REQUEST['action']) && (isset($_REQUEST['board']) || isset($_REQUEST['topic'])))
{
if(empty($modSettings['queryless_urls']))
{
// This is surprisingly simple... Figure out whether it's a board or a topic, and replace a few characters
if(strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), '/board,'))
{
// We're really only interested in what follows "/board,"...
$string = substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), '/board,') + 7);

// This is really quite simple - replace every "/" with a ";", every "," with an "=" and get rid of ".html"...
$location = $scripturl . '?board=' . str_replace(array('/', ',', '.html'), array(';', '=', ''), $string);

header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header('Location: ' . $location);
}
elseif(strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), '/topic,'))
{
// We only need what's after "/topic,"...
$string = substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], strpost(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), '/topic,') + 7);

// Again, just replace slashes with semicolons, commas with equal signs and get rid of the .html...
$location = $scripturl . '?topic=' . str_replace(array('/', ',', '.html'), array(';', '=', ''), $string);

header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header('Location: ' . $location);
}
}
// Only do this if we're just viewing a board or a topic - "board=" or "topic=" could be there in other situations as well...
else
{
// Still just a simple matter of replacing things, although a bit more work is required for topics...
if(strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), 'board='))
{
// Get whatever follows the "board="
$string = substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), 'board=') + 6);

// Reverse of what we did above - replace semicolons with slashes, and equal signs with commas.
str_replace(array(';', '='), array('/', ','), $string);

// Don't forget the .html...
$string .= '.html';

$location = $scripturl . '/board,' . $string;

header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header('Location: ' . $location);
}
elseif(strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), 'topic='))
{
// Get whatever follows the "topic="
$string = substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], strpos(strtolower($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']), 'topic=') + 6);

// Split off the anchor string from the rest of it...
if(strpos($string, '#'))
{
// Where does the anchor string start?
$pos = strpos($string, '#');

// Isolate the anchor part from the rest of it
$anchorstring = substr($string, $pos);

// Now we just drop that part from the string...
str_replace($anchorstring, '', $string);
}
else
{
$anchorstring = '';
}

// Replace again
str_replace(array(';', '='), array('/', ','), $string);

// Add the .html
$string .= '.html';

$location = $scripturl . '/topic,' . $string . $anchorstring;

// Redirect
header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header('Location: ' . $location);
}
}
}

Moved it to the [[Tips and tricks]] board.

Zitat von: Oldiesmann in Dezember 14, 2005, 02:43:35 NACHMITTAGS
That might work, but there are a couple of problems with that code:

Thanks Oldiesmann, that's great and seems like a much more elegant solution.

A couple of questions, if you don't mind?

I've noticed that when SE friendly URLs are enabled in SMF, that the pull down menus still point to the default dynamic PHP URLs. Will your solution also redirect the urls generated by the drop-down menus? Although, perhaps, a way to also make the pull down menus generate SE friendly URLs would be a better solution?

Zitat1. It doesn't handle the start parameter (the part after the . that tells SMF what page or message we're viewing), so an attempt to access a specific page of a board or topic or a specific post within a topic would result in being redirected to the first page instead of the actual location.

I suspect that this is intentional on the part of the author, to avoid duplication of content. I think that the idea is that it ensures that the search engines only index one instance of a topic (the beginning, as you said), rather than whatever point in the discussion the SE spider happened to pick up (which could well be an anchor point in the middle of a thread). From that point of view, it's quite clever.

I agree that the search and profiles don't really need to be SE friendly, though.

I'll try your solution though and report back. Will it work in all versions of SMF (I'm using the Beta 1.1.

Thanks JayBachatero, for moving this to Tips and Tricks. And thanks again to both of you for the help. :)

Hi Oldiesmann

I am getting the following error when I paste that code in (this is with SEO friendly URLs switched off);

Warning: Unexpected character in input: ' in /home/domain/public_html/index.php on line 183


If I switch SE Friendly URLs on, the errors look like this;

Warning: Unexpected character in input: ' in /home/domain/public_html/index.php on line 183

Notice: Array to string conversion in /home/domain/public_html/index.php on line 171

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/domain/public_html/index.php:183) in /home/domain/public_html/index.php on line 179

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/domain/public_html/index.php:183) in /home/domain/public_html/index.php on line 180


Whoops! Mixed up the order of the values being passed to str_replace :)

Fixed the code above.

Thank you, as ever.

Very much appreciated.  :D

Just one minor issue. When the redirect kicks in, it loses the # sign. E.G. it forwards the url to something like this;

http://www.domain.com/index.php/topic,125.msg532.html

When the URL is actually;

http://www.domain.com/index.php/topic,125.msg532.html#msg532

Again, this leaves the possibiity of Google having two urls to deal with.

<---EDIT--->

Also, did you say that this would work the other way around? I.E. SE Friendy to dynamic/original URLs? Because I get the following error when I turn SEO friendly option off;

Fatal error: Call to undefined function: strpost() in /home/domain/public_html/index.php on line 120

AFAIK google will ignore #'s anyway.

Zitat von: Ben_S in Dezember 18, 2005, 06:17:36 NACHMITTAGS
AFAIK google will ignore #'s anyway.

I was just about to disagree with you, then I went to check. You are quite right. :P

Thanks for that. :)

The code isn't supposed to drop the anchor string, but if Google ignores them anyway then I guess there's no point in fixing them. Also, the strpost() error is due to a typo. It should be strpos().

Thanks, as ever, Oldiesmann.

i would like to use this since our forums can't due this because we dont got the mod we need.

i got it to do stuff like

Zitat
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^index.htm index.php [L]
RewriteRule ^forums.htm index.php?action=forum [L]
RewriteRule ^search.html index.php?action=search [L]

but soon as i add

RewriteRule ^board([0-9.]*).html index.php?board=$1 [L]

i get a 500 internal server error.

am i doing anything wrong?

in fact if i add anything else it breaks

Zitat
RewriteRule ^profile.html index.php?action=profile [L]
RewriteRule ^PrivateMessage.html index.php?action=pm [L]
RewriteRule ^Calendar.html index.php?action=calendar [L]

What would also be really nice is if, upon first viewing a forum with SEF URLs switched on, is if the PHPSESSIONID stuff could be avoided - Google is full of PHPSESSIONID urls from my forums, so it is indexing this. Also, the first time that the home page is shown to a user, it still shows the PHP dynamic URLs.

Any ideas welcome.

Hi

This all works fine, apart from one feature. I've noticed that when an email notification is sent to a member, it is still in the old format. And they click on the link it redirects them to the beginning of a thread, rather than to the *new* post.

Is there any way to fix this?

Thanks.

There`s another Problem...

Urls like topic,#topicid.html could not be rewritten to topic,#topicid.0.html

This is very nesserary to prevent duplicate content...

Anyone an Idea..?

Why can't they be rewritten? That's the standard SEF format in SMF.

Because Googlebot has found these Urls and crawls it every day.

When they can be rewritten - tell me how to...

But your answer is no answer to the question...

I don`t need no why...

You said they could not be rewritten. I'm asking why that's the case.

The default SEF format is topic,#topicid.0.html - the 0 is for the number of items in the page. If there are links in topic,#topicid.html format, that's something broken somewhere.

No, theres nothing broken somewhere...

Don`t let us talk about how it is broken (I see often Google Site:Domain-results with the same failure)...

I wanna have an answer how to avoid it...

If it's generating that, something IS broken since SEF should never be generating that style of link.

Though a redirect might be able to deal with it if your host allows you access to .htaccess files.

Yeah, a htaccess redirect or a function in the upper lines can solve this...

But please don`t answer again that this is a unique Problem of my forums script.
It is our all scripts problem.

Please don`t ask again in telling any questions...

I wanna have a solution for my answered Question.

@Arantor --> You cannot give an answer with your simple Forum - I have seen it... Please don`t answer in this discussion...

Zitat von: 300c in November 03, 2009, 06:19:38 NACHMITTAGS
@Arantor --> You cannot give an answer with your simple Forum - I have seen it... Please don`t answer in this discussion...

You're right, I don't know anything about SMF despite being currently on the team, having written over 30 modifications for it (of which 6 have been given away to other users). I also wouldn't suggest you try the even more SEF mod called Pretty URLs which also has a ton more redirection in it with allegedly more SEF URLs.

I also don't know, for example, that I cannot reproduce the 'wrong' URLs on 1.1.10, 2.0 RC1.2 or 2.0 RC2 where no mods have been installed.

I also, therefore, wouldn't suggest something in the form of: (assuming your forum is the top level, i.e. domain.com/index.php = forum)
RewriteRule ^/topic,([0-9]+).html topic,$1.0.html [R,L]

But of course, I cannot give you an answer.

Yeah, you could not give any answer...

Your Code did not work - I habe created a code like this before and inserted this in my htaccess

I would ask whether your forum is domain.com/index.php like I mentioned? If not, it won't work.

But you've asked me to leave the thread, so I will.

the forums URL ist forum.tld/index.php/forexampletopic,forexamplenumber.xyz.html

No need to attack another member. Now, if English isn't your primary language (as I can tell it isn't) then please feel free to ask in your respective language board.