Hi,
Thanks for the invitation ( ref : phpbb site ) and this great MOD.

Let me put my requirement again here

I am using Able2Know seo MOD and need to know
1. how is this MOD better than Able2know
2. At this stage is it safe to migrate to this MOD. I already have 1500 pages indexed ( forum and main website ) in google.
3. Will the 301 redirection of this MOD work for the urls created by Able2Know MOD ?
4. I am using following MODs Able2Know seo,attachment, POst Control, rssfeed 2.2.4. I hope they will not interfere with your MOD.

If the above things can be done then I am sure there are many many people who would like to migrate from other seo MODs to yours.

And welcome

So :

1) Better for many reasons, the essential one being they continue to be developed and are coming with a complete SEO suite : mx Google sitemaps, mx sitemaps, add ons and many more in the future. The phpBB SEO project's plan are to made all this ready as well for phpBB 3, so this is to take into consideration when the able2know mod rewrite seems to be abandoned.

Then technically, the reason are more or less well described here : not a single pagination duplicate, a faster code as we do not use ob_start any more and a wider range of URL standard to choose from. The able2know mod rewrite is comparable to the phpBB SEO simple one, but as many more duplicate and is slower. The idea being to totally get rid off all duplicates, the zero duplicate already being redirecting everything we don't want, next step will be not to output any post URL, as on this forum.
This will be part of the update I am working on.

2) Yes it is safe thanks to the zero duplicates, you can migrate to any mod rewrite you want here, it's just a matter of doing the change when really ready and following a simple procedure. I just posted this one about this

The change would only concern the forum.

3) Same as 2), the idea is developed in the mentioned link, we'll redirect anything but the exact correct URL we want, zero duplicate is really zero here

4) Should not be a problem with any of these mods.

attachment require a simple fix to work with mx Google sitemaps :

Open :

Code: Select all

attach_mod/attachment_mod.php

Find :

Code: Select all

if (file_exists($cache_dir) && is_dir($cache_dir) && is_writable($cache_dir))

Replace with :

Code: Select all

if (@file_exists($cache_dir) && is_dir($cache_dir) && is_writable($cache_dir))

because the mod is for some reason searching for a cached file that do not exist obviously for mx Google sitemaps, so you could end up with a message telling you "file does not exist". We just turn off the message here, as the attachment code knows what to do in such cases (eg nothing).

rssfeed 2.2.4 is supported, but was not initially designed to output topics URL, being the only ones we want, so there is a patch to rewrite the post links output ed (the zero duplicate will off course redirect those as well).

I am currently working on a seo rss solution

++

Thanks dcz. On your word I am going ahead and taking risk to migrate from able2know to your seo mixed MOD.
I hope you will guide me in migrating. Can u post a link if you have any to the thread where proper migration from able2know is discussed.

One more thing. In seo-mixed-mod rewrite its mentioned that it requires Cyber Alien guest session mod. I am using Able2know with phpBB static URLs mod _rewrite 1.0.0. Do I also need to use Cyber Alien?

Lastly, I use following in my .htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /forum/

So should I delete phpbb/ in seo-mixed mod .htaccess recomendation.

nims wrote:Do I also need to use Cyber Alien?

Yes you'd better use cyber alien's method I think. More efficient and easy to install.
To do so just undo the change (there is only one if I remember well) performed by the able2know mod in sessions.php and install the cyber aliens guest sessions.

nims wrote:Lastly, I use following in my .htaccess file

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /forum/

So should I delete phpbb/ in seo-mixed mod .htaccess recomendation.

The best would be to put the rewriterules in your root's .htaccess and to replace all phpbb/ with forum/ for your case.

It's better to deal with the www prefix duplicate.

This mean you should as well move your able2know rewriterules to the root's .htaccess.

Post here your .htaccess if you're unsure. The good thing is we should be able to upload the correct .htaccess and still have the old url to work at first (as we keep the able2know rewriterules to migrate), so you don't even need to upload the php changes at first.

Zero dupe PMed

++

And what needs to be uninstalled in able2know seo ?

Just the "phpBB static URLs mod _rewrite 1.0.0.txt" instructions.


This part of "Able2Know.com Search Engine Optimization 2.0.0.txt" should as well be undone before you'd go for cyber alien guest sessions mod.

Code: Select all

#
#-----[ OPEN ]------------------------------------------
# 

includes/sessions.php

#
#-----[ FIND ]------------------------------------------
#

$SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;

#
#-----[ REPLACE WITH ]------------------------------------------
#

if ( $userdata['session_user_id'] != ANONYMOUS ){
   $SID = 'sid=' . $session_id;
} else {
   $SID = '';
}

Your .htaccess in root should be :

Code: Select all

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

#########################################################
# PHPBB SEO REWRITE RULES            #
#########################################################
# AUTHOR : DCZ http://www.phpbb-seo.com/
# STARTED : 01/2006
#####################################################
# FORUMS PAGES
########################
# FORUM PROTECTION RULE
RewriteRule ^forum/.+/([^/]+\.html)$ /forum/index.php [R=301,L]
# CATEGORIES
RewriteRule ^forum/.+-vc([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/index.php?c=$1 [QSA,L]
# PAGINATED FORUM
RewriteRule ^forum/.+-vf([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewforum.php?f=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# FORUM
RewriteRule ^forum/.+-vf([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewforum.php?f=$1 [QSA,L]
# PAGINATED TOPIC
RewriteRule ^forum/.+-vt([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# TOPIC
RewriteRule ^forum/.+-vt([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [QSA,L]
# POST
RewriteRule ^forum/post([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [QSA,L]
#PROFILES
RewriteRule ^forum/member([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=$1 [QSA,L]
# END PHPBB PAGES
#####################################################
# able2know rewriterules
#we keep them to kill them ;-)
RewriteRule ^forum/forums.* /forum/index.php [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/post-([0-9]*).html&highlight=([a-zA-Z0-9]*) /forum/viewtopic.php?p=$1&highlight=$2 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/post-([0-9]*).* /forum/viewtopic.php?p=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/view-poll([0-9]*)-([0-9]*)-([a-zA-Z]*).* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&postdays=$2&postorder=$3&vote=viewresult [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/about([0-9]*).html&highlight=([a-zA-Z0-9]*) /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&highlight=$2 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/about([0-9]*).html&view=newest /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&view=newest [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/about([0-9]*)-([0-9]*)-([a-zA-Z]*)-([0-9]*).* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&postdays=$2&postorder=$3&start=$4 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/about([0-9]*)-([0-9]*).* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/about([0-9]*).* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/about([0-9]*).html /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2&postdays=$3&postorder=$4&highlight=$5 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/mark-forum([0-9]*).html* /forum/viewforum.php?f=$1&mark=topics [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/updates-topic([0-9]*).html* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&watch=topic [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/stop-updates-topic([0-9]*).html* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&unwatch=topic [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/forum-([0-9]*).html /forum/viewforum.php?f=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/forum-([0-9]*).* /forum/viewforum.php?f=$1 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/topic-([0-9]*)-([0-9]*)-([0-9]*).* /forum/viewforum.php?f=$1&topicdays=$2&start=$3 [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/ptopic([0-9]*).* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&view=previous [L,NC]
RewriteRule ^forum/ntopic([0-9]*).* /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&view=next [L,NC]

By the way, I did not through more than an eye on able2know's .htaccess, and it quite outrageous to use this many rewriterules, the QSA flag does not seem to have pleased the author.
I am pretty sure we could optimize these rewriterules, but we'll do this once everything will be working in the apache mod rewrite forum

++

Ok thanks buddy now I have enough courage ( I think ) to migrate. Though I am really scared and wud require your best wishes.
I have around 1500 indexed pages and pagerank 4 in google lets see your magic now.

So my first job wud be uninstalling able2know
- 2nd install cyber alien MOD
- 3rd work on .htaccess file
- 4rth seo-mixed MOD
- 5th zero duplicate code

I hope I am on correct path.

Exactly, the best would be to validate this on a local test server if you're unsure, but if you first only upload the .htaccess, you'll be able to see directly if the old URL are working. If, for some simple reason it does not, you'll just have to put back online your old .htaccess and delete the new one, a matter of 30 sec with 404s if you go slow

Then when the old url are working with the new .htaccess, test a new URL before you upload the modified php files, something like www.example.com/forum/postxx.html where xx is an actual post id. If it works, then upload as you said the phpBB SEO mod rewrite modified files (and the able2know uninstall ones). At this stage, you should see the new URLs outputted and working on your forum, and the old one should still work without being redirected.

Then, install the zero dupe, the old URLs should be http 301 redirected to the new one

Next SEO step would be mx google sitemaps, mx sitemaps, and dynamic meta tag mod.

++

okie dokie so here I gooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!!

Problem !!!

Done everything including Zero Duplicate = (0D) code.
Everything is working fine except when I click on Topic links in a forum it shows page cannot be found (404 error). The topic links created are like /forum/topic67.html

Any suggestions ... my board is down

Sorry I though you where installing the advanced phpBB SEO mod rewrite, so for the mixed as it seems, you need to change this :

Code: Select all

# PAGINATED TOPIC
RewriteRule ^forum/.+-vt([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# TOPIC
RewriteRule ^forum/.+-vt([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [QSA,L]

To this :

Code: Select all

# PAGINATED TOPIC
RewriteRule ^forum/topic([0-9]+)-([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1&start=$2 [QSA,L]
# TOPIC
RewriteRule ^forum/topic([0-9]+)\.html$ /forum/viewtopic.php?t=$1 [QSA,L]

in your .htaccess, or you could go for the advanced if you prefer by just do as if you'd install it over the mixed one, you'll only find code already added, the advanced is only adding some few more changes. In sessions.php you'd have to change the full append_sid funciton.


++

OK great and thanks. Made the changes and its all working fine ( have used mixed-MOD ).
Now the point is what are the differences between mixed and advanced seo-MODs and which one do you recommend and why ?

Will be trying mx google sitemaps today. Should mxgoogle and mx sitemaps both be done ? I have a forum that is a part of a website, but I dont have sitemap for my main website. So can submitting google sitemap just for forum would create any problem ? May be google thinks forum is the only thing I have ?
Is there any MOD that allows to create pages in the forum. Like where we can post PHP code in the forum to be executed like a normal PHP page ?

Also kindly let me know how to upgrade from mixed-seo to advanced-seo ?

Well the difference between mixed and advanced mod rewrite is topic title injection in URLs.

Both can be the best for a particular project, depending on the topic title quality (the way the follow your target keywords, the way they are describing or not the content in it and so on).

I'd need a link to your forum to advise you on this matter, but mixed mod rewrite is good, way better than able2know mod rewrite.

Migrating from the mixed to the advanced mod rewrite is made very easy by the zero dupe, but I'd prefer to see your topic title quality before I advise you to do so

++

1. I have PMed you the link.

2. I wud like to go for advanced-seo. Infact I have already Modded the files and am waiting for your approval. I have Modded files without uninstalling mixed-seo.

3. Problem : I found that viewtopic and viewforum use seo_redirect($url); function but advanced-seo doesnt define this function. Now I have some code in these 2 files using seo_redirect() function, without seo_redirect in my functions.php file. Pls go thru it and let me know what should I do to upgrade to advanced-seo.

I feel Topic url injection is the most important thing for seo bcos it has high density keywords in the post.

4. Will be trying mx google sitemaps today. Should mxgoogle and mx sitemaps both be done ? I have a forum that is a part of a website, but I dont have sitemap for my main website. So can submitting google sitemap just for forum would create any problem ? May be google thinks forum is the only thing I have ?

5. I am planning to install Blank Page Template MOD to add dynamic content ( info etc. ), but am not sure if it is compatible with advanced-seo. Can you please check.