Ceon URI Mapping (SEO)

[TonyBunney]

Thanks Conor. I do like the look of the software as it allows me to use fixed urls as opposed to using the categories/products name which my client keeps on changing.
My clients is investing in a SEO campaign which obviously need to reference these fixed optimised URLS, so this package is just what I was looking for.
I am just about to create the .htacces file and will be testing the software on my test site (which is why the urls I sent you started with /zakz/ as my test site is used for more than one live site)

[TonyBunney]

Actually, while you ore on-line maybe you could confirm what I should have in my htaccess file for both my live site and my test site. Should I PM you or give the details in the forum.

[conor]

Hi,

Thanks Conor. I do like the look of the software as it allows me to use fixed urls as opposed to using the categories/products name which my client keeps on changing.
My clients is investing in a SEO campaign which obviously need to reference these fixed optimised URLS, so this package is just what I was looking for.

Glad to hear it! ;)

I am just about to create the .htacces file and will be testing the software on my test site (which is why the urls I sent you started with /zakz/ as my test site is used for more than one live site)

It is highly recommended NOT to use a folder for a test site when you are building a site that uses static URIs.

You cannot simply move a test site from a subfolder to the root folder when using static URIs, the URIs will all be broken.

You should only ever set up test sites using a test subdomain. E.g. test.thedomain.com instead of www.thedomain.com

then the only thing that will be different will be the configure files, the .htaccess files and all the URIs will be the same.

This is the only professional strategy for web development these days. :)

All the best..

Conor
ceon

[TonyBunney]

Thanks Conor. I will look into switching to test domains in the future as I have a number of new clients coming on board.

Regards

Tony

[conor]

Hi Tony,

Thanks Conor. I will look into switching to test domains in the future as I have a number of new clients coming on board.

It makes everything easier.. until our clients' sites are ready we simply use our own test server for them.. e.g. clientname.ourtestserver.com

Making the site live is then a simple matter of updating the Apache configuration to associate their domain name with the folder the test site is in and updating paths in the likes of configure files. Easy! (And v professional!) :)

Hope that helps!

All the best..

Conor
ceon

[DivaVocals]

I've done both ways.. I develop on my own host, then transfer the site to the clients host.. using a sub directory requires me to scrub the SQL file before transferring.. It wasn't pretty, but got it down to a science.. (a little find and replace magic ) That said switching to a subdomain setup has indeed made transferring from my dev to the client's prod environment a lot easier.. **LOL***

Hi Tony,



It makes everything easier.. until our clients' sites are ready we simply use our own test server for them.. e.g. clientname.ourtestserver.com

Making the site live is then a simple matter of updating the Apache configuration to associate their domain name with the folder the test site is in and updating paths in the likes of configure files. Easy! (And v professional!) :)

Hope that helps!

All the best..

Conor
ceon

[rpain]

Hi Richard,



You shouldn't exclude any Zen Cart pages from the mapping using htaccess rules.



That means that this module isn't built to work with *static* URIs.. it must be using relative URIs. Change all of its link generation functionality (and links to CSS/JS files) to use *full* static paths instead of relative paths and it will then be compatible with your new static-URI based site! :)

E.g. this is wrong:

includes/templates/css/my_css_file.css

This is right:

/includes/templates/css/my_css_file.css

All the best..

Conor
ceon

Thanks. I'm presuming then that I need to change lines like this:

if (file_exists(DIR_WS_TEMPLATE . 'common/tpl_main_page.php')) {

I've tried changing it to:

if (file_exists('http://www.websiteaddress.com/includes/templates/uktemplate/common/tpl_main_page.php')) {

..but it doesn't find the file. Should I be using:

if (file_exists('/home/wwwloui/public_html/includes/templates/uktemplate/common/tpl_main_page.php')) {

Instead?

Thanks again,
Richard

[rpain]

No worries - it is this format I need to use as far as I can tell:

/home/wwwloui/public_html/includes/templates/uktemplate/common/tpl_main_page.php

....Just got to wade my way through the files now to see what needs to be changed.

Thanks,
Richard

[gal_op]

Hi Conor

Your module works like a charm on my Mineral Skin care site

Thanks for your quick support and help


Zen cart 1.3.9a

[TonyBunney]

It looks like Conor is correct on the sub domain issue and I will certainly be looking at that solution when I get time but for now, as I have a deadline, I will continue to use my current method which is basically having logic in the config.php file to determine which site I am running on, including a local XAMPP server.
I obviously have to use different .htaccess files as I am not that confident I know how to determine which site I am running on within the .htaccess file itself. I know it can be done but for now I will use different files for each environment.

Tony