Ceon URI Mapping (SEO)

[conor]

Hi,

Conor,
This was timely, as I'm down to the last few items before replacing my legacy site with my new zencart site.

I'm glad you like the module! ;)

How do I specify an alternate url for the index page?

You can't currently "mask" the index page, if you'd like that functionality to be added please get in contact privately.

The legacy site was html, so I specified html/htm suffixes for the new site. Will that cause a problem (being that they are php?)

That's the beauty of "URI mapping", it is totally fine to do that!

We didn't have a shopping cart or an account function before, so I don't see any reason to translate those. Is that short-sighted?

No, there's no point in my opinion!

On a separate issues, the module only uses the URI mappings in links for the products, categories and EZ-pages, the "aliases"/"alternate uris" map to a particular page but the modules doesn't currently catch on to other Zen Cart pages and replace their links with any alternate URIs. That functionality could be added though.

Again, the whole idea is to maintain the excellent seo placement and not have broken links.

Thanks again for a great product!

You're very welcome!

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

[CJPinder]

Hi Conor,

I've started playing around with this mod and it looks really good. One thing I can't quite work out though... If I have a category URl that looks like...
/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=123
...and I map it to...
/some-keywords
...then if someone goes to the original URI I would expect it to do a 301 redirect to /some-keywords but it doesn't seem to do that. Am I missing something? Without the redirect search engines won't reindex the site properly.

Regards,
Christian.

[yellow1912]

This module does exactly what the name says: alias/mapping
So it wont redirect. I think Conor explained this before.

[conor]

Hi Christian,

Without the redirect search engines won't reindex the site properly.

Hmm, that's a good point!

I'll add full redirection for any current Zen Cart URIs to any mapping entered for them in the database.

I'll let you know when the new version is out, it will be soon!

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

[CJPinder]

I'll add full redirection for any current Zen Cart URIs to any mapping entered for them in the database.

Thanks Conor, that would be great.

One other thing... When testing the mod on a store that is in a subdirectory, e.g. www.example.com/store I'm having some trouble. If I manually enter a URI mapping for a category (e.g. /coffee) the link shows correctly in the store but it doesn't work. I think this is because the REQUEST_URI is coming through as /store/coffee which doesn't match the database entry.

If I use automatic generation of the category URI then it sets it to /store/coffee which then creates a link like www.example.com/store/store/coffee which looks wrong and doesn't work either

Am I doing something wrong?

Regards,
Christian.

[conor]

Hi Christian,

Thanks Conor, that would be great.

Working on the new version now.. this is going to be a change in the way the data is stored in the database and will allow full use of various types of redirect and full mapping of every page type Zen Cart offers (not just categories/products/ez-pages).

The code's quite easy but the changes really add so much to the module's capabilities so I'm glad I'm adding them (personal satisfaction/pride about the module's newfound capabilities and all that!) :)

Anyway... :)

Am I doing something wrong?

You're using the "wrong" version, but that's my mistake, not yours!

There was a bug in versions 2.0.0 - 2.0.2 which caused all links to be prepended with the store's catalog directory setting.

I've fixed that in 2.0.3 - please download it. Upgrading takes about 20 seconds!

Sorry about the bug!

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

[conor]

Hi JR,

How do I specify an alternate url for the index page?

You can't currently "mask" the index page, if you'd like that functionality to be added please get in contact privately.

YOU CAN NOW! :)

Version 3 has full support for this now. (Once you've read the docs you'll realise you can use "index" in a new database record).

On a separate issues, the module only uses the URI mappings in links for the products, categories and EZ-pages, the "aliases"/"alternate uris" map to a particular page but the modules doesn't currently catch on to other Zen Cart pages and replace their links with any alternate URIs. That functionality could be added though

IT HAS BEEN NOW! :)

Thought I'd let you know specifically before I posted the about the release, to save answering any questions!

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

[conor]

Hi,

It gives me great pleasure to release a major new version of this module. I've listened to the comments on this thread and another one and took on board what people had to say. I've now added all the functionality I think people were looking for.

The major feature of the new version is that it changes the way the module works. Everything is now based on the idea of "Current" URI mappings.

Full Historical URI Mapping has been added so all previous links still work when new ones are used or "old" ones are "deleted" - these "old" URIs now redirect to the "current" URI.

There's also full redirection from current dynamic Zen Cart URIs to the URI mapping for the Zen Cart page in question, so Search Engines will know to start converting their links to your pages to their new "redirected" links.

There's too much to say here, check out the feature list!



From the Revision History:

[UPDATED] Completely new database structure implemented.

[ADDED] Idea of “Current” static URI made central concept behind handling of URIs in module. All admin URI functionality now inserts/updates mappings for the “Current” URI only.

[UPDATED] Ability to “delete” URI mappings removed. Instead, any “old” URI mappings are marked as no longer being current.

[ADDED] Historical URI mapping support added. “Deleted” URI mappings still point towards their original subject, by redirecting the user to the “Current” URI for the subject. URI mappings being updated don't have their old URI mappings retained; however, they can be added [back in] to the database manually if necessary.

[ADDED] Support for all Zen Cart pages added to the database, the module's code and its modifications to the zen_href_link function. Any Zen Cart page can now have a static URI, which will be linked to instead of the standard Zen Cart dynamic URI!

[ADDED] Automatic redirection of dynamic URIs to their current, active URI mapping added to URI Mapping. Any attempt to use a dynamic URI for a page which has a current static URI will result in the user being redirected to the current (static) URI.

[ADDED] Ability to specify the HTTP Status Code to be used for the redirection to an alternative URI added. Allows controlling of exact type of redirection (temporary/permanent etc.).

[ADDED] Support for pages related to the product info pages added. Reviews and Tell-A-Friend sections are now automatically made “subsections” of the product's main info page, by appending some specific URI parts to the product info page's static URI. These specific URI parts are defined in the admin languages file.

[UPDATED] Dynamic query string variable is no longer appended to static URI links for subcategories or links to product info pages (for those which aren't a link to a linked product). Results in cleaner, “nicer” URIs!

[BUGFIX] Missing filename definitions added for several product types. Links to products of these types now correctly use any static URI defined for the product.

[UPDATED] Documentation updated with information about new functionality and the methodology behind the new way the module works.


Upgrading is easy for sites which haven't modified the respective core files (for any other module except this one), just a simple matter of copying the files across and then going to the Config Utility - it'll automatically update your existing database table and data to the new format.

Download 3.0.0 Now!

Any and all feedback would be appreciated, this was a major upgrade.

Enjoy!

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

[conor]

Hi,

I'm very sorry to say that a major bug was found in version 3.0.0 of the Ceon URI Mapping module.

3.0.0 doesn't work at all with search engines, only humans:

[BUGFIX] The standard Zen Cart initsystem initialises the languages system at one of the later stages, meaning that the language ID is set too late in the initsystem process for this module to work correctly when a non-human visits the site. The languages init code is now run in the URI Mapping initsystem script to fix this (major) problem.


Please download 3.0.1 now.. it is available on our site and now in the ZC downloads area also.. only two files need updating:

admin/ceon_uri_mapping_config.php

includes/init_includes/init_ceon_uri_mapping.php

If you then go to Ceon URI Mapping Config in the admin it'll upgrade your version number to the official 3.0.1.


Please accept our most sincere apologies for the bug. Thankfully it's very quick and easy to update and the software should work perfectly now.

(Thanks go to Christian for finding and reporting the bug!).

All the best...

Conor
Ceon

[conor]

Hi,

Please note that the previous post applies to 3.0.0 but that ALL USERS OF 2.0.X MUST UPGRADE ALSO!

Otherwise search engines only see one language version of the site.

Plus 2.0.x is now officially NOT SUPPORTED!

Upgrading from 2.0.x to 3.0.x only takes a minute or two for sites which haven't modified the applicable core admin files for any module other than Ceon URI Mapping.

All the best...

Conor
Ceon