Converting from phpbb3 board

[Blind Dragon]

Hello,

I am converting to vb, already bought license, coming from phpbb3. I currently use mod-rewrite and zerodupe from phpbbseo. I use a mixed rewrite meaning that the forum categories are completely rewritten, but the topics show as below =

Forum Category Example:

http://www.tech-101.com/tech-chit-chat/

Forum Topic Example:

http://www.tech-101.com/tech-chit-chat/topic614.html

So, my questions:

1) Will vbseo use a different format and then I use? I am guessing I will have to use 301 to redirect for existing indexed pages? Would I be able to do full rewrites of forum and topic urls? And would I be penalized for doing so?

2) Does vbseo use Dynamic or Static title injection?

3) Meta Keywords/Description? Does it take them dynamically from the topics content?

Thanks in advance,

Blind

[Mert Gökçeimam]

Hello Justin ,

The main problem you'll face is to redirect your old content to new vBulletin threads. Because with Impex when you make an import from phpbb3 to vBulletin your thread , post and member id's will change. We have a tool that will work with standart Phpbb urls 404 / 301 Tool After Import Redirect on ImpEx imported forums but i am not sure if it will work with your SEO addon you had.

With vBSEO you'll have an option to customize your url rewrites as you want. You can check rewrite options and other vBSEO options within vBSEO Demo which is located at http://www.vbseo.com/demo/

vBSEO modifies all urls on page on fly. You don't need to make any template or code change to get vBSEO working. You only need to follow installation instructions and after installation you'll be good to go.

vBSEO modifies meta information for each threads.

Please let us know if you have any further questions.

[Blind Dragon]

Thank you for such a fast response.

The main problem you'll face is to redirect your old content to new vBulletin threads. Because with Impex when you make an import from phpbb3 to vBulletin your thread , post and member id's will change. We have a tool that will work with standard Phpbb urls 404 / 301 Tool After Import Redirect on ImpEx imported forums but i am not sure if it will work with your SEO addon you had.

That is exactly what I am worried about.

If I show you the .htaccess file do you think you would be able to determine if the tool will work?

Is there a way I can tell the search engines the new url paths.

[Mert Gökçeimam]

I'll flag this ticket to our Lead Developer's attention so he can respond with an exact answer.

[Blind Dragon]

Thank you Mert

I am thinking a simple change to the tools .htaccess will work

Here is the section of my .htaccess that is probably needed:


RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule . - [L]
# FORUM INDEX
RewriteRule ^forum\.html$ /index.php [QSA,L,NC]
# FORUM
RewriteRule ^(forum|[a-z0-9_-]*-f)([0-9]+)/?(page([0-9]+)\.html)?$ /viewforum.php?f=$2&start=$4 [QSA,L,NC]
# TOPIC WITH VIRTUAL FOLDER
RewriteRule ^(forum|[a-z0-9_-]*-f)([0-9]+)/(topic|[a-z0-9_-]*-t)([0-9]+)(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /viewtopic.php?f=$2&t=$4&start=$6 [QSA,L,NC]
# GLOBAL ANNOUNCES WITH VIRTUAL FOLDER
RewriteRule ^announces/(topic|[a-z0-9_-]*-t)([0-9]+)(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /viewtopic.php?t=$2&start=$4 [QSA,L,NC]
# TOPIC WITHOUT FORUM ID & DELIM
RewriteRule ^([a-z0-9_-]*)/?(topic|[a-z0-9_-]*-t)([0-9]+)(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /viewtopic.php?forum_uri=$1&t=$3&start=$5 [QSA,L,NC]
# PHPBB FILES
RewriteRule ^resources/[a-z0-9_-]+/(thumb/)?([0-9]+)$ /download/file.php?id=$2&t=$1 [QSA,L,NC]
# PROFILES WITH ID
RewriteRule ^(member|[a-z0-9_-]*-u)([0-9]+)\.html$ /memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=$2 [QSA,L,NC]
# USER MESSAGES WITH ID
RewriteRule ^(member|[a-z0-9_-]*-u)([0-9]+)-(topics|posts)(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /search.php?author_id=$2&sr=$3&start=$5 [QSA,L,NC]
# GROUPS
RewriteRule ^(group|[a-z0-9_-]*-g)([0-9]+)(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /memberlist.php?mode=group&g=$2&start=$4 [QSA,L,NC]
# POST
RewriteRule ^post([0-9]+)\.html$ /viewtopic.php?p=$1 [QSA,L,NC]
# ACTIVE TOPICS
RewriteRule ^active-topics(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /search.php?search_id=active_topics&start=$2&sr=top ics [QSA,L,NC]
# UNANSWERED TOPICS
RewriteRule ^unanswered(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /search.php?search_id=unanswered&start=$2&sr=topics [QSA,L,NC]
# NEW POSTS
RewriteRule ^newposts(-([0-9]+))?\.html$ /search.php?search_id=newposts&start=$2&sr=topics [QSA,L,NC]
# THE TEAM
RewriteRule ^the-team\.html$ /memberlist.php?mode=leaders [QSA,L,NC]

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Since there is no forum ID in your forum categories URLs, you will need to add mutliple rewrite rules to redirect old links to new ones, like:

RewriteRule ^tech-chit-chat/$ http://www.domain.com/new-forum-url/ [L,R=301]
etc

thread URLs can be redirected with our tool mentioned above.

[Blind Dragon]

Ok, im buying now and gonna give it a go. Thanks again for the quick response.

Do I still need to run Impex prior to using your tool?

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Yes, Impex is needed to transfer data to vB database, our tool just 301-redirects URLs accordingly.

[Blind Dragon]

Ok,

So that worked the forum urls that were different are all forwarding properly.

However the 404/301 script continues to feed the following error no matter what I do.

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected $end in /public_html/vbseo301.php on line 100

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Make sure that you are using the code from attached file, not the one pasted directly in post.

[Blind Dragon]

Ok, now the error is gone, when i point my site at www.tech-101.com/vbseo301.php It just shows the default page not found page. I can change it in the script to point at a nice 404 page that has a search function or my home page whatever.

And a page like this one, our most popular - http://www.tech-101.com/virus-malwar...al/topic6.html

now points to a page not found?

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

Please add this rewrite rule in .htaccess right after "RewriteEngine on" line:

RewriteRule ^[^/]+/topic([0-9]+)\.html vbseo301.php?action=thread&oldid=$1 [L]

[Blind Dragon]

Getting closer, i think...

now http://www.tech-101.com/virus-malwar...al/topic6.html

produces...

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/techonez/public_html/vbseo301.php:1) in /home/techonez/public_html/vbseo301.php on line 99

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/techonez/public_html/vbseo301.php:1) in /home/techonez/public_html/vbseo301.php on line 100

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

I've updated vbseo301.php file in attachment, can you try it now please?

[Blind Dragon]

Thank you Oleg it's working properly now.

I appreciate the quick responses that you all provide here.