Category URL issue post upgrade

https://baumerfoods.com/products/
ZC v1.5.5e
PHP Version 7.0.27
Database: MySQL 10.0.33-MariaDB

We hired 3rd party Numinix to do upgrade us from ZC v1.5.3 to 1.5.5. Process appeared to have gone perfectly. Client very rarely introduces new categories and products but added a new cat with one product last week.

The category URL seen in the store navigation was https://baumerfoods.com/products/-c-/pg/store

The expected URL was https://www.baumerfoods.com/products/sauces/hot-sauce-with-garlic/pg/store

It took a week to get the attention of the support team and when we did we were advised to do these steps

1) reset the master categories ID in ADMIN > TOOLS > STORE MANAGER
2) in the configuration of your SEO URLs plugin, reset the cache 

These two actions were done by me. The SEO tool in question is Simple SEO URL Manager. I assume the upgrader used 1.5.2 but I am having trouble finding out for sure.

After these actions the store navigation shows same URL ( https://baumerfoods.com/products/-c-/pg/store ) for all categories and that URL results in default store home with New Products for January showing.

All of the original URLs like https://www.baumerfoods.com/products/sauces/hot-sauce/pg/store also redirect to store default home so customers cannot access products.

My question is how to manually recreate the old paths so they function in the store again? Any advice truly appreciated!

Though I would recommend any other uri rewriter than that one, have you tried downgrading the php to 5.6? Perhaps that uri rewriter has not been fully upgraded to 7.0?

That said, there may be an issue with your .htaccess file that is causing the problem, because:

https://www.baumerfoods.com/products/sauces/hot-sauce/pg/store

Is rewritten to:

‎https://baumerfoods.com/products/index/pg/store

Which just seems wrong.

Beyond that, if the question is related to the uri rewriter's operation, would suggest posting to the support thread for it. If it is more about how to now add something else to access the product again using some other method by way of the previous uris, then that's another story entirely.

I reached out to the folks at Numinix, and they replied:

"We already handled that ticket. They need to clear their SEO urls cache. It's not related to the upgrade. Or maybe regenerate the htaccess."

They asked us to clear the cache at which point all the category URLs stopped working. We paid them extra by about 50% to handle the upgrade of the plugins as well. They did offer to sell us their SEO plugin...

I have pointed out to them that we paid for the plugins to be vetted and upgraded as needed but they are not replying. At each step of the problem we wait more than a day and in one case almost a week to hear back at all.

I would just try to add Ceon SEO but I am concerned that the old Simple SEO install might have involved code edits to existing files?

All I really want is to get URLs working before I lose a client I have had 13 years.

have you just tried turning the simple URL off?

i would start there.

in looking at simple URLs, it looks like minimal change of core files.... perhaps just one.

but your expected URL

https://www.baumerfoods.com/products/sauces/hot-sauce-with-garlic/pg/store

does NOT look a simple URL rewriter. it looks like a different URL rewriter to me.

there should be a config to turn URL rewriting off. i would start there to see if normal menu items start working again.

Thank you. You are correct re "off switch". That UI is not with the rest of the UI for Simple SEO URL Manager so I had missed it.

Once off we do have working URLs in nav again so we are back in business. Will look at removing Simple SEO URL Manager and possibly adding Ceon.

Just want to reiterate that after weeks of trying to get help from Numinix after paying them extra to specifically handle any plugin issues in the upgrade they performed they have ignored us and left us in the wind only offering to sell us software.

FYI I believe your contact with them prompted a change in attitude. Numinix assisted with getting SEO urls working again albeit 15 days after the issue arose.

Thank you for your help!!