Hi, i need to convert from webmedic's mod rewrite to the phpBB SEO one, but keeping exactly the same URLs. How do i go about this?

TIA

First thing to decide is do you want to keep topic title injection ?

If you are happy with the results you already had, and want to stick to the same URLs, then, we'd go fot the phpBB SEO Advanced mod Rewrite, but it's as well possible to migrate to the mixed mod rewrite if you think your topic title are not good enough.

But this can be done when we want actually, and without losing anything as far as how well our site are indexed.

Then, if you decide to go for the advanced (I am almost sure that's what you want, however I advise you to at least give it a thought, too many bad topic titles is not good at all) we have to check on or two things.

The way you deal with ' :
Tell me what would this topic title would give in your case : "SEO'd site"

Will it be seo-d-site or seod-site ?

Because webmedic's mod usually perform the second one, where here, we decided to go for the first as a standard, but no big deal, there is a fix and here it is : replace ' with nothing instead of a -.

Then, I'll need to know if you already had installed the mx Google sitemaps and mx Sitemaps already.

To migrate you'll just have to uninstall the webmedic mod rewrite, changes are to be found in page_header.php, page_tail.php and overall_footer.tpl.

You should just put back the regular phpBB (up to date) code where the webmedic mod changed some things.

For 2.0.21, in page header you should put back in page_header.php :

Code: Select all

//
// gzip_compression
//
$do_gzip_compress = FALSE;
if ( $board_config['gzip_compress'] )
{
   $phpver = phpversion();

   $useragent = (isset($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_USER_AGENT'])) ? $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] : getenv('HTTP_USER_AGENT');

   if ( $phpver >= '4.0.4pl1' && ( strstr($useragent,'compatible') || strstr($useragent,'Gecko') ) )
   {
      if ( extension_loaded('zlib') )
      {
         ob_start('ob_gzhandler');
      }
   }
   else if ( $phpver > '4.0' )
   {
      if ( strstr($HTTP_SERVER_VARS['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'], 'gzip') )
      {
         if ( extension_loaded('zlib') )
         {
            $do_gzip_compress = TRUE;
            ob_start();
            ob_implicit_flush(0);

            header('Content-Encoding: gzip');
         }
      }
   }
}

overwriting webmedic mod's changes (all of them)


And in page_tail.php

Code: Select all

//
// Compress buffered output if required and send to browser
//
if ( $do_gzip_compress )
{
   //
   // Borrowed from php.net!
   //
   $gzip_contents = ob_get_contents();
   ob_end_clean();

   $gzip_size = strlen($gzip_contents);
   $gzip_crc = crc32($gzip_contents);

   $gzip_contents = gzcompress($gzip_contents, 9);
   $gzip_contents = substr($gzip_contents, 0, strlen($gzip_contents) - 4);

   echo "\x1f\x8b\x08\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00";
   echo $gzip_contents;
   echo pack('V', $gzip_crc);
   echo pack('V', $gzip_size);
}


If you where using additional mod needing the make_url_friendly() function, then, just use format_url() instead, will do the same job faster
Once done, we'll have to check you robots.txt and will eventually add one or two HTTP 301 redirections

++

Sorry, but can you tell me explain the difference in topic titles with the advanced and mixed mods?

murph wrote:Sorry, but can you tell me explain the difference in topic titles with the advanced and mixed mods?

So, with the advanced, you'll have topic title injected in URLs, same as webmedic, but with a handy cookie :

Everything in the topic titles in between "[" and "]" won't show up in URLs :

"[V 2.013] Super Soft" in topic title will output "super-soft-vtxx.html" in topic url, allowing for updates in this example, without changing URL as "[V 2.45 gold] Super Soft" in topic title will still output "super-soft-vtxx.html" in topic url
Again, if you run a titling policy using "[" and "]", we can change the delimiter or disable the feature to keep your old URLs while migrating.

The mixed mod Rewrite will do the same for Forums URLs, but will go for static when it comes to topic.

Topic will be rewritten this way topicxx.html (and topicxx-yy.html when paginated).

We can set up an HTTP 301 redirection for the old topic link to still work :

*-vtxx.html => topicxx.html so that you won't loose Backlink.

The contrary, from static to dynamic URL rewriting is another story

Take a look to the release thread, worth installing a new test board, they are installed very fast if you set up path correctly in the .htaccess.

The demo as well : http://phpbb2.phpbb-seo.net/ (you can switch between mod rewrites online there to see the differences)

++

So to clarify, i need to remove the existing seo url mod (put it back to how it was) and then do the full mod for the advanced? Then by using advanced, i will have indentical urls as before (no 301 redirects to do)

Yes and this too

dcz wrote:The way you deal with ' :
Tell me what would this topic title would give in your case : "SEO'd site"

Will it be seo-d-site or seod-site ?

Because webmedic's mod usually perform the second one, where here, we decided to go for the first as a standard, but no big deal, there is a fix and here it is : replace ' with nothing instead of a -.

And you have to think about the "["and "]" thing in topic titles as well (keep as is, change delimiter, remove) because you don't want to change your URLs.

This is if you go for the advanced, the mixed won't need any changes besides custom robots.txt and HTTP 301 redirections.

++