Simple SEO URL (OLD version) [support thread]

Ultimately, it is up to you to use seo url or not, and to decide which module you want.

I have stated over and over, I believe content is king, nice url is just probably 0.00001% bonus.

Yellow, thanks for the quick response. One more issue here:

I'm really confused, this type of link was added to my MYSQL database on a lot of my pages:

phpMyAdmin=QfZm1ZpLNpm-V4TATE0nFBh7Z

it did this to some google checkout mods & to my own pages as well.

do you know why this would happen?

Im more confused than you.

What do you mean? This was added to your database? on what table? or it was added to the links created?

Can you show us the site?

PS: this module does not store links in database at all

yellow1912:

Im more confused than you.

What do you mean? This was added to your database? on what table? or it was added to the links created?

Can you show us the site?

PS: this module does not store links in database at all

I'll PM you the exact details of the site.

--Changing the URL Framework--
Zen cart is more of a challenge than wordpress, you've probably got more types of links in Zen Cart. The solution wordpress uses is each blog page has a page plug. When you create a page, it defaults to a plug that matches your page title. The default plug is a title with hyphens to replace spaces. This results in pages like this:

mysite/somecategoryname/pagename/

Wordpress also uses extentionless URLs and forces trailing slashes.

The only way to really fix Zen Cart URLs (yes I realize this could be a huge amount of work), would be to add a page plug option to every category, and every product. The final URL for each page would just throw together the page plugs. Each plug within a category would have to be unique. I realize the problem for a programmer here.

On Zen Cart I could have 5 categories all with the same name, but a different ID, thrown all throughout the site.

However, if you've got a page plug system, then you don't have to worry, you can simply have each specific page plug point to a specific query.

Now, if there was a crazy store owner out there that had two primary categories with the same name, or multiple categories within a subcategory with the same name, there could be an issue. In this case, if you had a default plug, it might have to add a number or something to make the category unique.

Okie, some of your links look like this:

http://site.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=74&phpMyAdmin=QfZm1ZpLNpm-V4TATE0nFBh7Z%2C5

If you turn ssu on, and you see link with index.php?main_page=, that link is hardcoded. And in your case, whoever hardcoded it left the phpMyAdmin=QfZm1ZpLNpm-V4TATE0nFBh7Z%2C5 there for whatever reason.

Anyhow, Im beat, that's it for me today. Leave posts here and I will prompty reply tomorrow (spare my inbox unlex you have to send something important, it's full)

Regards

Yeah, don't worry about the phpmyadmin thing--I still don't know the cause, but it has nothing to do with your mod! (Sorry!)

yellow1912:

check admin/includes/configure.php see if DIR_FS_SQL_CACHE is there.

I have to leave, be back tomorrow

REgards

Thank you, that worked :) I'm just a zen cart newbie still, even though I've been on this a few months.

Thanks so much for helping me yellow--

yellow1912:

If this is a testing server, may I have the access to the ftp to make some changes for testing? If so please pm me your ftp info.

Regards

Raine
Well, actually this is an account that hosts several domains, including the all-important ladywig.
So, let me do some backup first, and after that will PM ftp info.
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to fix this.
Also, please shoot an email or something advising when you will be there, so we won't overlap.
Regards,

Yellow, I love this mod, you did an incredible job with this thing. This is hands down the best URL mod for Zen Cart.

I love how the URLs are extensionless, and how you've comprehensively changed all the links for me! (I don't think I had to do any extra work once this mod was installed--amazing)

It also appears to correctly serve 404 page not founds errors (I've seen other URL mods not doing this).

There's a few minor things I want to do to this mod. I wonder if these things would be difficult:
-force a trailing slash on all links (to avoid what google could see as duplicates). I can do 301 redirects with htaccess, in case people try to go to a page without a slash directly. however, I think I should interally point to pages with slashes.
-I want to add backslashes after each category to make virtual folders. I've read that spiders like MSN stop reading after about 3x dashes "-". If I throw in some virtual folders instead of dashes, I don't think I'll have to worry as much about this.

Yellow: your mod is probably the only one with the capacity / potential to write perfect/ beautiful URLs. I think your php driven approach is the only robust/foolproof method for zen cart. The problem is, too many URLs have query numbers & there's no way a universal htaccess can accomodate that. Feeding the queries to the index page (as you've done) is really the RIGHT way!

I do wish the URLS could be written without -c- or -p- or the numbers with underscores to represent categories 34_35_59 etc. That would probably require a specific page 'plug' for each & every category/ subcategory/ product possiblitity, which could be referenced vs. the query needed in mysql. Someone wrote something very similar to this for wordpress. I know it can be done, & I know you're clearly a person that has the skills to do this. However, I have no idea how many hours this would take.

ckosloff:

Well, actually this is an account that hosts several domains, including the all-important ladywig.
So, let me do some backup first, and after that will PM ftp info.
Thank you so much for taking the trouble to fix this.
Also, please shoot an email or something advising when you will be there, so we won't overlap.
Regards,

Sure,
Also, you may want to just change the js file mentioned previously to .php file. If my memory still serves me right, it will fix the problem.

Open includes/init_includes/init_ssu.php

You will find this line:
while (substr($link, -1) == '/') $link = substr($link, 0, -1);

Add below it:
$link .= "$link/";

This quick fix should force the trailing slash you wanted.

Regarding the other thing, one of the features promised was Link Alias, which is probably close to what WP calls page plug.

dontknowwhatimdoing:

Yellow, I love this mod, you did an incredible job with this thing. This is hands down the best URL mod for Zen Cart.

I love how the URLs are extensionless, and how you've comprehensively changed all the links for me! (I don't think I had to do any extra work once this mod was installed--amazing)

It also appears to correctly serve 404 page not founds errors (I've seen other URL mods not doing this).

There's a few minor things I want to do to this mod. I wonder if these things would be difficult:
-force a trailing slash on all links (to avoid what google could see as duplicates). I can do 301 redirects with htaccess, in case people try to go to a page without a slash directly. however, I think I should interally point to pages with slashes.
-I want to add backslashes after each category to make virtual folders. I've read that spiders like MSN stop reading after about 3x dashes "-". If I throw in some virtual folders instead of dashes, I don't think I'll have to worry as much about this.

Yellow: your mod is probably the only one with the capacity / potential to write perfect/ beautiful URLs. I think your php driven approach is the only robust/foolproof method for zen cart. The problem is, too many URLs have query numbers & there's no way a universal htaccess can accomodate that. Feeding the queries to the index page (as you've done) is really the RIGHT way!

I do wish the URLS could be written without -c- or -p- or the numbers with underscores to represent categories 34_35_59 etc. That would probably require a specific page 'plug' for each & every category/ subcategory/ product possiblitity, which could be referenced vs. the query needed in mysql. Someone wrote something very similar to this for wordpress. I know it can be done, & I know you're clearly a person that has the skills to do this. However, I have no idea how many hours this would take.

A new version has been posted in the download section. This version contains many bug fixes that were posted in this support thread but NOT uploaded to download section.

Please note that the fix for glid is not included yet. It will be in the next version along with link alias.

@license http://www.zen-cart.com/license/2_0.txt GNU Public License V2.0

1. Fixed bug with redirection when category ids/product ids contain non numeric character
2. Fixed bug with extension setting
3. Fixed bug which causes some links displayed like this /abc/%s/def
4. Alpha testing passing POST form info after redirection.
5. Added more comments and documentation.

This will be the first version of SSU to fully support multi-languages. You will now notice different names of products and categories names when you select a different language.
It will also fix some serious problem with non-latin sites (site that use chinese/japanese/etc as the default language)

This is in ALPHA testing, use at your own risk. Not recommend for those who do not need it

I've installed SSU on a new vanilla ZC (1.38a) and I can't seem to get the extension option to work. Without the extension, the links all seem to work fine (e.g. http://example.com/login).

But as soon as I try to specify an extension (e.g. htm or html without the dot) all links seem to work (they don't redirect to a diff. URL) but the contents of the home page is displayed instead of the page you request.

There is a PHP warning at the top of the page that says

Warning: preg_replace() [function.preg-replace.html]: Unknown modifier 'h' in C:\apacheroot\website\includes\init_includes\init_ssu.php on line 77

And here's line 77:

$mr = trim(($this->catalog_dir=='/' && empty($this->extension)) ? getenv('REQUEST_URI') : preg_replace($mr_regex,'',getenv('REQUEST_URI'), 1),'/');

Sorry, I couldn't figure it out. I'm not much chop when it comes to regexes.

I followed the instructions in this post to no avail.

SSU Beta 2.8 on ZC 1.38a on PHP 5.25 on Apache 2.2 on WinXP.

If you downloaded it from the download section: the new version is submitted there but it is not yet published. You may want to try the one of the new versions above.

PS: also, please note that extension should not come with the dot, for example: html is correct, .html is not

I need to leave now, be back later

Regards

Hi, I've just installed this, the second last zip posted back up there^^ lol and I installed the module manager first....my problem is that all my category links are now showing like this:

http://www.havendesignz.com/store/cSSU_ID_DELIMITER21
and the centerbox products:
http://www.havendesignz.com/store/cSSU_ID_DELIMITER2/auvessu_name_delimitersunsetssu_name_delimiterminikitSSU_ID_DELIMITERpSSU_ID_DELIMITER31

****Never mind....appears I had to reset the cache LOL

I'll tack on here that I use Paypal IPN and did a test transaction, and so far no problems fingers crossed lol

I do have a question though, the defines pages 2, 3 and 4 show as page_2 etc, is there any way to have those actually show the names of the pages I created, for example, mine are How to Checkout, Copyright Issues, and Custom Kit Gallery or is that not possible and I should shut up and be happy with what I have? LOL

Aside from that, I am loving this mod....I was trying to talk my husband into letting me buy Magic Seo because I'd tried Ultimate SEO and couldn't get it working....so a huge thank you for taking the time to write this one up :D

@christon:
Not now, but do expect that feature in the coming version

Regards

christon26:

I'll tack on here that I use Paypal IPN and did a test transaction, and so far no problems fingers crossed lol

I do have a question though, the defines pages 2, 3 and 4 show as page_2 etc, is there any way to have those actually show the names of the pages I created, for example, mine are How to Checkout, Copyright Issues, and Custom Kit Gallery or is that not possible and I should shut up and be happy with what I have? LOL

Aside from that, I am loving this mod....I was trying to talk my husband into letting me buy Magic Seo because I'd tried Ultimate SEO and couldn't get it working....so a huge thank you for taking the time to write this one up :D

Yellow, I keep getting this error... "No input file specified. " What am I doing wrong?

bean48009:

Yellow, I keep getting this error... "No input file specified. " What am I doing wrong?
In the docs folder, there is a file called troubleshooting which should have the answer to that, I believe

@yellow1912...
While you are working on fixing the gclid parameter so that it is not converted it would be a good idea to also do...
utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term, utm_content, utm_campaign

..so that a link that looks like..

http://www.example.com/?utm_source=a&utm_medium=b&utm_term=c&utm_content=d&utm_campaign=e...will keep the those parameters untouched. They are need for proper tracking in Google Analytics and it uses Javascript to read them.

Many thanks,
Christian.