Ultimate SEO v3 (and v2.200) [Support Thread]

[lhungil]

... Not sure how to "code" - please advise ...

After you click "REPLY" on the forums clicking "GO ADVANCED". This will give you extra options in the editor.

Nevermind... just had to fix permissions on control panel to view. ... the 2nd one isn't there - just the config.seo files are there...

Do not use a "control panel" to copy files to your server. This is known to cause problems including corrupted files. Zen Cart (and all Zen Cart modules) should be installed directly using a SFTP, FTPS, or FTP client.

Zen Cart requires both configuration files, so they are there somewhere. If you renamed your "admin" folder, which is recommended after installing, then replace the word "admin" with the name of your Zen Cart "admin" folder.

The configuration you posted for "includes/configure.php" is missing some quotes around the DB username / password. If you copied this from the server and did not edit to replace the username / database with dummy values you should fix the quotes. The "store" configure.php looks okay otherwise at a glance (I mostly wanted to see where you installed various Zen Cart components).

I did see another post about that error here but I'm not sure what they are talking about as a resolution

First and foremost, are you running Zen Cart 1.3.9h? I am not supporting this module on older versions.

If you are running Zen Cart 1.3.9h, I'm guessing the store has been upgraded from previous versions and some of the merges were not successful. Use a tool such as WinMerge or BeyondCompare to see what is different in your store than a stock 1.3.9h store and go from there. Your copy of "includes/functions/functions_general.php" is outdated and needs to be upgraded if you are running 1.3.9h.

I believe it was installed on heteromorphic.com/zencart. The .htaccess file is on the root for sure (heteromorphic.com).

As per the installation instructions the sample .htaccess file goes in the location you installed Zen Cart. So in your case "heteromorphic.com/zencart/.htaccess" not in the root "heteromorphic.com/.htaccess". Please adjust accordingly.

[heteromorphic]

After you click "REPLY" on the forums clicking "GO ADVANCED". This will give you extra options in the editor.

Do not use a "control panel" to copy files to your server. This is known to cause problems including corrupted files. Zen Cart (and all Zen Cart modules) should be installed directly using a SFTP, FTPS, or FTP client.

Zen Cart requires both configuration files, so they are there somewhere. If you renamed your "admin" folder, which is recommended after installing, then replace the word "admin" with the name of your Zen Cart "admin" folder.

The configuration you posted for "includes/configure.php" is missing some quotes around the DB username / password. If you copied this from the server and did not edit to replace the username / database with dummy values you should fix the quotes. The "store" configure.php looks okay otherwise at a glance (I mostly wanted to see where you installed various Zen Cart components).

First and foremost, are you running Zen Cart 1.3.9h? I am not supporting this module on older versions.

If you are running Zen Cart 1.3.9h, I'm guessing the store has been upgraded from previous versions and some of the merges were not successful. Use a tool such as WinMerge or BeyondCompare to see what is different in your store than a stock 1.3.9h store and go from there. Your copy of "includes/functions/functions_general.php" is outdated and needs to be upgraded if you are running 1.3.9h.

As per the installation instructions the sample .htaccess file goes in the location you installed Zen Cart. So in your case "heteromorphic.com/zencart/.htaccess" not in the root "heteromorphic.com/.htaccess". Please adjust accordingly.

My server did the install as a fresh 1.3.9.h for me but they aren't upgrading so I would have to do. Not being an expert, do you know anyone who offers that upgrading service for a decent price by chance? I would like to upgrade but make sure all my mods stay in tact too :)

I did use ftp, but I was accessing those you requested from control panel just to copy/paste the code since I was at another job at the time... but yes, always do from ftp when uploading files. The code - the quotes are there - just deleted when i redacted those fields...

I ended up restoring back from my entire site so I at least have it back online for now; but really need help with making it SEO friendly. Would you recommend not using this one until I can get upgraded or any other version that may work better with 1.3.9.h for now until I can upgrade versions?

I'm afraid to try and re-install again and have the same issue

Thanks for all the help!

[lhungil]

I'm afraid to try and re-install again and have the same issue

Understandable. Merging files is not always simple. Did you try replacing the functions_general.php with the one from Zen Cart 1.3.9h? Just to see what happens?

When you have a clean Zen Cart installation (no plugins or modifications) you can literally just drag and drop the replacement files. This works well in my 1.3.9h test environment (clean install w/ DEMO database - no other plugins or modifications).

[lhungil]

Compatibility
Zen Cart 1.3.9h & 1.5, MySQL 5.0/5.5, PHP 5.2.17+/5.3/5.4
If running Zen Cart 1.3.9h it is not recommended to run with Zen Cart SQL Caching enabled. Support for running Zen Cart 1.3.9h with this option enabled will not be provided. It is strongly recommended to upgrade to Zen Cart 1.5 if you use this feature.

If you are running a version of this plugin prior to version 2.150 it is recommended you uninstall the old version of the plugin including all database entries prior to installing this version. While most settings will be automatically upgraded the installation scripts have not been tested against versions prior to 2.150.

New Enhancements (since the last version)

• To ensure URLs are W3C compatible, htmlspecialchars is run over all generated URLs with mode and character set specified (PHP 5.4 compatibility).
• Setting "Enable automatic rewrite" to true will automatically issue a 301 redirect for URLs not matching the output from zen_href_link.
• For linked products canonical links are generated when needed by using the prodct's master category id. The generated links are passed to Zen Cart's canonical link system.
• Added handling for copy / pasted "Internal URLs" in "EZ-Pages" to make migration to the new version easier for upgraded installations.
• Updated README_ENGLISH with more detailed installation steps.
• Changed the names of folders and moved some files around to make installation steps more clear.
• Updated the English language file to clarify the usage of "Enter pages to allow rewrite".

Bugs Addressed (since the last version)

• Added option to disable the EZ-Page cache.
• Page not requiring special handling of parameters will now correctly have the "extension" added to the end of the URL.
• Cleans up some obsolete configuration options which may still be present when upgrading from a previous version.
• New .htaccess sample handles product reviews when "Categories as directories" is enabled.

When will the new version be available?
I am planning to upload the new version on 21 Nov 2012. Those wishing to test the new version prior to when it appears in the plugins section of the Zen Cart website are advised to apply to be BETA testers.

[matthewreece]

Hi
Thanks for updating a great and useful mod.
The only way i can get this mod working is to comment out the line "Options +FollowSymLinks" in the .htaccess. I was wondering why? and whether it is safe to do this.
Thanks in advance Matt

[SPH]

Hi,

I have installed this plugin on 1.5.x carts without problem. What version of zencart are you using and what other plugins are you using? Also, how much other stuff is in your htaccess file?

A link or unlinked text address to you site might also help.

[lhungil]

The only way i can get this mod working is to comment out the line "Options +FollowSymLinks" in the .htaccess. I was wondering why? and whether it is safe to do this.

If you need to disable this line, your hosting provider does not allow you to enable the web server to follow symbolic links. Most *nix hosting platforms support this option. Should be safe to comment out this line (unless you use symbolic links to create an "alias" to another file or directory).

[lhungil]

Description
If you disable the "SEO" cache in the admin configuration you are unable to re-enable the "SEO" cache.

Affected environments
Ultimate SEO URLs version 2.210 and 2.211.

Solution (until next version)
Replace the function "usu_check_cache_options" in "admin/includes/functions/extra_functions/seo.php" starting on line 104 with the following:

// Function to check the global cache settings
function usu_check_cache_options($action) {
	$temp = explode('-', $action);
	if(sizeof($temp) < 2) $temp[] = 'global';
	$temp[1] = strtoupper($temp[1]);

	switch($temp[0]) {
		case 'enable':
			$action = 'true';
			if(SEO_USE_CACHE_GLOBAL == 'false' && $temp[1] != 'GLOBAL') {
				zen_db_perform(TABLE_CONFIGURATION, array('configuration_value' => $action), 'update', '`configuration_key`=\'SEO_USE_CACHE_GLOBAL\'');
				echo '<div><span class="alert">' . sprintf(SEO_CONFIG_ADJUSTED, SEO_USE_CACHE_GLOBAL_TITLE, $action) . '</span></div>';
			}
			zen_db_perform(TABLE_CONFIGURATION, array('configuration_value' => $action), 'update', '`configuration_key`=\'SEO_USE_CACHE_' . $temp[1] . '\'');
			usu_reset_cache_data('true');
			break;

		case 'disable':
			$action = 'false';
			zen_db_perform(TABLE_CONFIGURATION, array('configuration_value' => $action), 'update', '`configuration_key`=\'SEO_USE_CACHE_' . $temp[1] . '\'');
			usu_reset_cache_data('true');
			break;

		default:
	}

	return $action;
}

[SPH]

Thanks, will look at this fix.

But a question: why would one want to disable the SEO cache in admin?

I didn't even know it was a problem.

EDIT: to answer my own question, perhaps someone will disable SEO cache just to see what it does, then cannot get it back?

[lhungil]

But a question: why would one want to disable the SEO cache in admin?
I didn't even know it was a problem.

Mostly for those who might "accidentally" turn this feature off.

With the SEO cache enabled some processing time and SQL Query time is saved at the expense of using more memory. The majority of installations will benefit from using the SEO cache to reduce PHP processing time when generating human friendly URLs.

While rare some people may have another layer of caching (such as caching portions of entire pages). Some may use the built in Zen Cart SQL cache (when enabled Ultimate SEO URLs uses this cache as well). Performance when generating URLs will vary depending upon the hosting environment where Zen Cart is installed (and thus this option exists for those who might benefit).