Canonical link function

[mithaimate]

Hi Guys,

I have for some unavoidable reason - duplicate products and duplicate categories in my website. I need to modify the canonical function so that the search engine indexes only one url.

I found the canonical function code - but for some reason whenever I try to modify - the website goes down.

The actual zen cart code is:
1)
Here - I need to check if the product id is greater than 2000 then the canonical url to should point to the URL of the product id minus 1000. So if the current product id is 2646 - the rel canonical tag should point to 1646.

If product id is lesser than 2000 then the function is unchanged.

/**
* for products (esp those linked to multiple categories):
*/
case (strstr($current_page, '_info') && isset($_GET['products_id'])):
$canonicalLink = zen_href_link($current_page, ($includeCPath ? 'cPath=' . zen_get_generated_category_path_rev(zen_get_products_category_id($_GET['products_id'])) . '&' : '') . 'products_id=' . $_GET['products_id'], 'NONSSL', false);
break;
/**


2)

Here - I need to check if the product id is greater than 200 then the canonical url to should point to the URL of the cateogory id minus 100. So if the current category id is 264 - the rel canonical tag should point to 164.

If product id is lesser than 2000 then the function is unchanged.

* for product listings:
*/
case ($current_page == 'index' && isset($_GET['cPath'])):
$canonicalLink = zen_href_link($current_page, zen_get_all_get_params($excludeParams), 'NONSSL', false);
break;
/**

I know this sounds simple - I cant figure out what wrong I am attempting to do :)

[DrByte]

I have for some unavoidable reason - duplicate products and duplicate categories in my website.

Please explain. How did you end up with actual duplicate products? And why aren't you deleting the actual duplicates so that the problem you're trying to "fix" doesn't actually exist in the first place?

[mithaimate]

Please explain. How did you end up with actual duplicate products? And why aren't you deleting the actual duplicates so that the problem you're trying to "fix" doesn't actually exist in the first place?

Hi Dr Byte,

It is always a pleasure to see your response. I will put down a concise background.

URL: http://goo.gl/11C4h

The client wanted to have two prices for every product depending on the shipping destination. And also wanted to have the ability to set sales/discounts etc on both the prices.

So we replicated all the products and categories - one for Price 1 and one for Price 2. Hence we ended up with two category pages (id's) and product id's for every product.

Hence I need to canonicalize.

[mithaimate]

anybody ?

[DrByte]

The client wanted to have two prices for every product depending on the shipping destination. And also wanted to have the ability to set sales/discounts etc on both the prices.

So we replicated all the products and categories - one for Price 1 and one for Price 2. Hence we ended up with two category pages (id's) and product id's for every product.

Hence I need to canonicalize.

Yikes. That's a very complicated scenario. I probably would have tackled it a very different way in order to eliminate all that duplication, improve efficiency, and minimize customer confusion, and avoid this extremely unique need for canonicalization.

You'll need to write your own custom code for your own very specific unique requirements. Editing the /includes/init_includes/overrides/init_canonical.php would be one place to start, and probably also the /includes/modules/pages/product/main_template_vars.php etc. You'll have to get creative in building the correct remapping algorithm and pray it doesn't break when you add more products in the future.

[mithaimate]

Yikes. That's a very complicated scenario. I probably would have tackled it a very different way in order to eliminate all that duplication, improve efficiency, and minimize customer confusion, and avoid this extremely unique need for canonicalization.

You'll need to write your own custom code for your own very specific unique requirements. Editing the /includes/init_includes/overrides/init_canonical.php would be one place to start, and probably also the /includes/modules/pages/product/main_template_vars.php etc. You'll have to get creative in building the correct remapping algorithm and pray it doesn't break when you add more products in the future.

Out of curiosity and better handling of this requirement next time .. what would you have done for this dual price requirement ? I am sure lot of others face this crazy requirement from this bosses / clients..

[DrByte]

The answer to that really depends on the "why" behind what was done. There are various addons that handle multiple pricing, some that handle multiple stores in one, some that handle customer-buying-groups, and then there's custom coding to handle different prices in different currencies on one product.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer to the general question you've posed.