W3C validation error

[nwoGeo]

On broadindex, section "Last post" "in" line gives an error on first visit to the site, "EntityRef: expecting ';' "

The end of the cookie in the link is written like this,

0919&#new

and should be like this,

0919&#new

I can't find the file, so I can change "&" to "&"

or is there something else going on creating this W3C validation error.

Here's the W3C validation test: http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fnwoforum.com%2Fforum%2F&charset=%28detect+automatically%29&doctype=Inline&group=0&user-agent=W3C_Validator%2F1.3+http%3A%2F%2Fvalidator.w3.org%2Fservices

[Arantor]

It's one of the many interesting and fun side effects of the way the Pretty URLs mod works. Fixable? Not really. Other than not using Pretty URLs - not that that will help you that much anyway.

[nwoGeo]

Where is this written, where is the code that writes the link like that?

[Kindred]

you should ask about how PrettyURLs works (or does not work) in the support thread for the mod...

[Arantor]

That's the hilarity: NO CODE writes the link like that. There is physically nowhere in SMF that the link is output like that.

The links get rewritten, multiple times over, in the HTML buffer before being exported to the user.

Do yourself a favour and remove Pretty URLs. The mod's clearly buggy if it isn't bothering to deal with PHPSESSID...

[nwoGeo]

That's the hilarity: NO CODE writes the link like that. There is physically nowhere in SMF that the link is output like that.

The links get rewritten, multiple times over, in the HTML buffer before being exported to the user.

Do yourself a favour and remove Pretty URLs. The mod's clearly buggy if it isn't bothering to deal with PHPSESSID...

will do? thanks

[Suki]

simpleSEF is a less intrusive mod with more options to play with. You can try that one.

[nwoGeo]

simpleSEF is a less intrusive mod with more options to play with. You can try that one.

Looks good, but what about rel="canonical"?

Does it update the pages source to match the rewrites or is this just a htaccess redirect mod?

And like what Arantor said, "The mod's clearly buggy if it isn't bothering to deal with PHPSESSID," does it deal with PHPSESSID?

[Arantor]

That's the problem: both mods go through and physically rewrite the code itself before it even gets out of the server - including the canonical link.

The entire approach is untenable in the long term - and has many many many side effects.

[nwoGeo]

I see, question, what about queryless urls. does it save db queries, is it fast, etc. That's the "Search engine friendly URLs" admin option right? Is it advised if my server supports it?

[Arantor]

Queryless URLs are a complete waste of time these days. 10 years ago when SMF first debuted, it was necessary because search engines were still in their infancy and would routinely ignore ? content in URLs. These days, search engines use canonical references to understand duplicate content.

Rewriting index.php?topic=1.0 to index.php/topic,1.0.html is a waste of effort.

[Suki]

simpleSEF is a less intrusive mod with more options to play with. You can try that one.

Looks good, but what about rel="canonical"?

Does it update the pages source to match the rewrites or is this just a htaccess redirect mod?

And like what Arantor said, "The mod's clearly buggy if it isn't bothering to deal with PHPSESSID," does it deal with PHPSESSID?

I never had any issues with canonical url or php sessions with this mod, granted, I'll use it just to get a better idea of what the url is about, never cared about SEO or search engines.