Ceon URI Mapping (SEO)

Good point kitcorsa.

Actually the whole attributes issue looks like it was a bit of a red herring. I know why I saw that as the issue but it turns out it is coincidental. I was adding attributes when I noticed it and letting ceon uri mapping generate uris as I was doing it. So, all the items with new attributes also had URI mapping.

If I let the mod re-write any product then that means that that product is not added.

Must be some configuration issue on my site because I just don't see how this is the case with all the sites using this mod.

look in 'Emergency Equipment' you'll see a blank product with no attributes - also disfunctional.

Hi,

vgambrell:

I beleive I have a simple issue, and it may have to do with the rewrite isapi.dll, but has any one running version 1.3.8a zencart on Windows Server 2003 to work?

It writes the link, but does not map to the long name.

PHP 5.2.9

My sql 5.2.1
IIS 6

Please advise how you got the rewrite work....or what files you need to check...

I'm afraid I only have experience with Apache servers, I don't know how to set up a rewrite rule for IIS.

Please let us know here if you find out how to get this working..

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Hi,

Retail tech:

Have Ceon installed on my 1.3.8a Zen cart site and it cant display more then the first page when searching from manufactures.

That's a known bug in the current version. The new version will fix it. There's no release date as yet (- watch this space!).

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Hi,

niccol:

Actually the whole attributes issue looks like it was a bit of a red herring. I know why I saw that as the issue but it turns out it is coincidental. I was adding attributes when I noticed it and letting ceon uri mapping generate uris as I was doing it. So, all the items with new attributes also had URI mapping.

I'm not sure what you mean here.. the module has no support whatsoever for URI Mappings for attributes, only for products. How is your site generating URI Mappings when you are adding attributes?

Or do you mean that when you were adding attributes you were also updating the products (possibly with a new description) and therefore generating a URI Mapping? (I think that's what you mean). Regardless, I'm pretty sure I have the solution below..

niccol:

If I let the mod re-write any product then that means that that product is not added.

I think you mean "Added to the cart"?

niccol:

Must be some configuration issue on my site because I just don't see how this is the case with all the sites using this mod.

It's not quite a configuration issue.. I've noticed that your site will redirect to the URI Mapping entered in the admin when you go to the product page but no links use the URI Mapping. This means you've forgotten to upload the new version of

includes/functions/html_output.php

from the modified_core_files folder (for your version of ZC).

That means that the form action URIs are being set to the old dynamic Zen Cart URIs, so the forms are being posted to an old URI and then having to be redirected to the new URI. Since redirections don't re-post values the items aren't being added to the cart.

Hope that gets you up and running.

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Thank you.

Re-uploaded a newly downloaded version of the html_output file and of course it works. So thank you.

Sorry if the previous post was not clear. Yes, in order to add the attributes to an existing product I was editing the products in the admin panel. I was leaving the map URIs check box ticked as I previewed and then updated each product because there seemed no reason not to, although I haven't really started to think about URIs. So, as I went into each product with the aim of simply adding attributes a side effect of that was that the mapping was taking place.

Yes, I understand that the mod does not feature URI mappings for attributes. That is why I described the attribute issue as a red herring that had only been introduced, to my thinking and to the discussion, by the coincidental timing of URI mapping being used at at the time that I was updating product's attributes.

When I said that it was a configuration issue I was only trying to say that I was sure that it was an error in my installation of zen cart. Sorry if I used the wrong words.

Thanks again for your help.:clap::clap::clap:

Hi,

niccol:

When I said that it was a configuration issue I was only trying to say that I was sure that it was an error in my installation of zen cart. Sorry if I used the wrong words.

Thanks again for your help.:clap::clap::clap:
I understand, it was a little unclear but you're up and running now and that's the main thing! :)

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Hi there,

First, thanks for this outstanding piece of code. It works perfectly. The only feature I would ask for would be something that recursively goes through your site and auto-assigns the URI - even though I have a small shop, I have many hundreds of products (and do all of my product editing with Easy Populate).

But that's not why I'm writing. I have a simple question.

My site is HyosungSource.com. I use a shared hosting on hostmonster - so my site sits in the subdirectory /hyosungsource/. This is the directory where I added the .htaccess changes.

However, when I click on an item, the URL is https://www.hyosungsource.com/hyosungsource/GT250/air-filter/

I don't want it to have the "hyosungsource" repeated. What I am trying to get it to is

https://www.hyosungsource.com/GT250/air-filter.

I know it may seem like a minor thing, but it affects a few other things elsewhere.

Any idea why it is doing this? Is it something I have to work out with my hosting provider, or can I do it in the config for Ceon URI? I was trying to change the mod_rewrite config, but without. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Many Thanks,
Sasha Shepherd

glad you got it running niccole!! i will look at adding this to my site next week.

Any news on the auto assign for all items yet conor as i have 1000's of items :S

Hi Sasha,

buddhaflow:

First, thanks for this outstanding piece of code. It works perfectly.

Thanks for the nice comments, I'm glad you like the module. It currently has a few bugs in it but I hope to have them all fixed shortly.

buddhaflow:

The only feature I would ask for would be something that recursively goes through your site and auto-assigns the URI

That requires more changes to the core code that I'm comfortable releasing as a "module" so I'm developing a Mappings Manager to do that very thing.

buddhaflow:

even though I have a small shop, I have many hundreds of products (and do all of my product editing with Easy Populate).

That's not a small shop! :)

buddhaflow:

My site is HyosungSource.com. I use a shared hosting on hostmonster - so my site sits in the subdirectory /hyosungsource/. This is the directory where I added the .htaccess changes.

The obvious answer is to have your host set up the store directory better or, if they won't then to use a better host.. no Zen Cart store should use a low level hosting package.. it would be worth spending $5 a month on something better!

buddhaflow:

I don't want it to have the "hyosungsource" repeated. What I am trying to get it to is

www.hyosungsource.com/GT250/air-filter.

You really should use a host that doesn't require your shop to be in a subdirectory named /hyosungsource - why can't you name it "store" or "shop"?

buddhaflow:

I know it may seem like a minor thing, but it affects a few other things elsewhere.

I think it's quite a major thing!

buddhaflow:

Any idea why it is doing this?

Yes, the auto-generation is designed to use the full DIR_WS_CATALOG path.. for most stores this is usually "/" or "/shop", both of which make sense.

buddhaflow:

Is it something I have to work out with my hosting provider

That would be the best solution.

buddhaflow:

or can I do it in the config for Ceon URI?

No, you can change the value of DIR_WS_CATALOG in the admin/includes/configure.php file to '/'.. you would probably need to change it back afterwards as otherwise any links to a page in the catalog which are generated in the admin (for example, those used in e-mails sent form the admin - coupon codes/gift certificates etc.) would have the wrong base path ('/' instead of '/hyosungsource').

Alternatively you can edit each URI mapping to remove the /hyosungsource - you don't have to use auto-generation, you can choose whatever URI you want (the primary purpose of the module in the first place).

So first thing is to see if you can get the /hyosungsource/ changed to '/' or '/shop/'. If not, you'll have to use one of the other two solutions presented above. As no-one else has asked for the ability to choose a different base path for the auto-generation this isn't a feature I'd be prepared to take the time to add to the module.

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Hi,
Is this mod compatible with the Multisite module?
TIA

Hi,

nsanford:

Hi,
Is this mod compatible with the Multisite module?
TIA

I'm afraid I don't know. I don't see why not. However, from my experience the multisite module is a very poor solution to managing multiple sites, anyone I've seen using it has had all kinds of problems. That's just my experience though. At Ceon we have our own multiple site software (which lets each site can have its own custom overrides, in a similar fashion to the way Zen Cart allows language defines and templates to have overrides) so I'm afraid we've no need nor desire to test anything with the multisite module.

Try it and see.. just make sure you take the standard recommended steps - i.e. have backups!

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Hi Connor,
Thanks for your response. I personally am not keen to use the multisite mod as it seems very confusing and I just know it's going to cause problems in the long run...

However, my client insists on having one administration for two stores on two separate domains, so I will have to make do.

At Ceon we have our own multiple site software

Are you selling this software? :blush: Or was it just a passing comment?

Thanks again!

Hi,

nsanford:

Are you selling this software? :blush: Or was it just a passing comment?

Oh, sorry, no, didn't mean to give that impression! It was indeed a passing comment. The current version of the software we have built is a bit too specific and customised for it to be of general use to people. The next version could be very useful indeed but that's a different story altogether and is at least 6 months off! It's hopefully going to be an open-source project though. I wouldn't say to "wait around" on it though, the 6 months is just a guestimate and you know how software development plans go! ;-)

Anyway, more interesting post coming up...

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Hi,

It gives me great pleasure to release an updated version of the module. I hope this fixes all the bugs that have been reported thus far.

The following doesn't seem to have been mentioned clearly enough before so it's being mentioned here again...

Please Note: This module does not automatically add mappings for existing Categories/Products/Manufacturers/EZ-Pages - if the site has existing Categories/Products/Manufacturers/EZ-Pages, they'll continue to use the standard Zen Cart dynamic URIs, until a URI has been entered or auto-generated for them, by editing the respective Category/Product/Manufacturer/EZ-Page in the admin.

This means going in and editing every Category/Product/Manufacturer/EZ-Page for which a static URI mapping is desired.

For this reason the module is aimed towards new and small stores. Or larger stores which just want to add mappings for particular parts of their site (special offers, EZ-Pages etc.) - something which is very useful for adding easy to read and remember URIs to advertisements for the site.

Version 3.2.3 includes numerous fixes for small bugs found in the module, ALL users should upgrade.

The changes are as follows:

[ADDED] Ability to exclude specific files added to ensure 100% compatibility with third party modules that have files which load up the Zen Cart system directly so they can process payment callbacks etc. To ensure that these files aren't adversely affected by the URI Mapping module, they should be excluded from being processed by the module by entering the file names in the configuration utility.

[UPDATED] Default URI Mapping is now added to map the dynamic URI for the store's home page (index.php?main_page=index) to its base static URI (e.g. / or /shop etc.) - avoids possible duplicated content issues with search engines.

[UPDATED] Extra checks added to minimise the number of situations in which the cPath query string parameter is appended to static URIs for products. The links to a product page for a product with a static URI are no longer checked against the cPath value for the global environment but are checked against the value the link function is called with. This should result in more matches and therefore the removal of the cPath variable more frequently, giving cleaner URIs.

[BUGFIX] A 404 page was being incorrectly displayed when the store's base URI was accessed with a query string appended. The index page is now displayed as expected.

[BUGFIX] Pagination, sorting and filtering functionality wasn't working when browsing by manufacturer as the module was clearing the query string parameters used to control this functionality.

[BUGFIX] Fixed a problem wherein an endless redirection loop could occur if a static URI used the main_page query string parameter.

[ADDED] Information about new Excluded Files functionality added to the documentation.

Upgrading is very easy, it should only take a few minutes for any stores which haven't modified the core files the module uses (except for a previous version of this module).

You can download the new version now from our website.

It has also been submitted to the downloads area and should be available there soon.

Hopefully that's all the bugs found. Enjoy!

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Conor,

Thanks so much for taking the time to get back to me.

Ha! Yes, I probably should be spending more than $6 a month to host my site. But, I'm not expecting a lot of traffic, and I want to make sure that there is at least some interest in the site and that it is a viable business before I invest more money in it. I CAN change the subdirectory to whatever I want, I just have a few different sites on my host and made this nameby default.

Incidentally, the "IR_WS_CATALOG" IS '/'. That's what got me so confused in the first place! I tried changing the subdirectory from /hyosungsource/ to /store/ and changing that in the configure.php, but the URI auto-mapping still showed hyosungsource. I wasn't sure if zen would balk if you made this change, so I changed it back.

Yes, I'll just change the auto-mapping - it's a bit time consuming, but that is a perfectly fine solution to the problem that gets me the exact result I want.

Looking forward to the mappings manager, that sounds so handy. Just curious, will it include a pattern replacing tool, ie, to replace /hyosungsource/ with /? :)

Thanks for the great software, and keep up the good work!

Sasha

Hi All
Sorry, I'm baffled by this a little. I've installed 3.2.3 and I'm happy that the new and core files have been correctly added and updated. I'm also aware that each category now need 'updating' which I've tried to do and failed. ie the rewritten url gives a 404

What I'm puzzled with is the .htaccess file. An .htaccess file appears only in my https://www.mywebsite.com/includes/ directory rather than https://www.mywebsite.com in which zencart is installed. This includes directory has an index.html rather than index.php and the .htaccess file looks like the below. Where am I going wrong? I should also say that if I place a copy of the htaccess file in https://www.mywebsite.com (which does have an index.php) and disable the one in the includes directory I get a 403 error.
Feels like I'm barking up random trees without knowing what i'm looking for...rrrrrrr : )
Any help is very much appreciated.
Thanks, Steve

# $Id: .htaccess 1105 2005-04-04 22:05:35Z birdbrain $
#
# This is used with Apache WebServers
# The following blocks direct HTTP requests in this directory recursively
#
# For this to work, you must include the parameter 'Limit' to the AllowOverride configuration
#
# Example:
#
#<Directory "/usr/local/apache/htdocs">
#  AllowOverride Limit
#
# 'All' with also work. (This configuration is in your apache/conf/httpd.conf file)
#
# This does not affect PHP include/require functions
#
# Example: http://server/catalog/includes/application_top.php will not work

<Files *.php>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
</Files>

#add the following to protect against people discovering what version your spiders.txt file is
  <Files *.txt>
   Order Deny,Allow
   Deny from all
  </Files>

RewriteEngine On

# Don't rewrite any URIs ending with a file extension (ending with .[xxxx])
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !\.[a-zA-Z]{2,4}$
# Don't rewrite admin directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/myrenamedadmin.* [NC]
# Don't rewrite editors directory
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/editors.* [NC]
# Don't rewrite cPanel directories
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/cpanel.* [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/frontend.* [NC]
# Handle all other URIs using Zen Cart (index.php)
RewriteRule (.*) index.php?%{QUERY_STRING} [L]

Hi Steve,

Place the .htaccess file in your root directory without the following lines:

<Files *.php>
Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all
</Files>

#add the following to protect against people discovering what version your spiders.txt file is
  <Files *.txt>
   Order Deny,Allow
   Deny from all
  </Files>

They block any access to your site (403 Forbidden).

All the best...

Conor
ceon

Hi Sasha,

buddhaflow:

Thanks so much for taking the time to get back to me.

No problem.

buddhaflow:

Incidentally, the "IR_WS_CATALOG" IS '/'. That's what got me so confused in the first place! I tried changing the subdirectory from /hyosungsource/ to /store/ and changing that in the configure.php, but the URI auto-mapping still showed hyosungsource. I wasn't sure if zen would balk if you made this change, so I changed it back.

That's very strange.. are you sure you are looking in the right file:

admin/includes/configure.php

rather than

includes/configure.php

?

buddhaflow:

Looking forward to the mappings manager, that sounds so handy. Just curious, will it include a pattern replacing tool, ie, to replace /hyosungsource/ with /? :)

I hadn't thought of that but I'll try to add it!

buddhaflow:

Thanks for the great software, and keep up the good work!

I'm glad you like it!

All the best...

Conor
ceon

ERROR!!

ive just upgraded the mod and now getting a very bad error!!

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?p=747618#post747618

see the link above.

when i log in as a returning customer, after entering the password i get forwarded to google!!!! if i press back i go to the my account page loged in!

That's got it. Thanks a lot Conor. Just dropped you enough for a pint and a bag of pork scratchings through the Ceon manual card donation. Will get a copy of your SagePay module in a week or so when the bank's woken up too. Keep up the great work.
Steve