Few (Many?) Questions

To keep things less confusing I'll space out separate questions with some red dashes.

I do apologize for the # of questions and length of this post, but I can't access the content that addressed half of my questions, and a few of them are too specific/too small keywords to search for.

==== Begin Questions ====

Does anyone keep a compatibility list anywhere of 3rd Party vB modifications that break when enabling vBSEO? I've seen a few reported here and there as vBSEO being the cause (or result of the author not taking the possibility of vBSEO into account), but I'm not sure how often it happens.
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Can the payment for vBSEO be set up as a gift? (If I get this it will initially be gifted to me, then I may or may not take over renewing it yearly)
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How well does this install on top of heavily modified styles? I've changed the entire code structure of many templates, removing unneeded tables, giving a more semantic structure, etc. I imagine there is also a lot of code that changes the page in realtime, and do both these scripts look for the most specific code possible? I can't have it be looking for HTML tags that aren't there anymore!

==== Begin Rewrite Questions ====

I have no access to the Rewrite section, so I have a few questions pertaining to the CRRs for vBSEO and other 3rd party addons:

How is CRR for vBadvanced and vBa Links implemented? As seen in the demo it seems that the CRR box available only allows rewrites to files inside the /forums/ directory. Is there a modification that moves this back a directory to the root of your domain? My vBa index.php file is in my root directory, and Links resides in its own directory by default.

This same modification that (seemingly) enables vBSEO to rewrite outside the directory for things like vBa/Links.. Does it also perform the replacements to links in the code? For instance the Navigation module links to each of your vBa pages, so would it rewrite these links as the page loads, just as it rewrites all the thread links on a page?
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And could I change this same rewrite modification to apply to a few select forums themselves?

For instance, here at vBSEO, if I were to want to have a special URL just for "f5" so that it'd become "vbseo.com/announcements/" and keep all other forums at the default I choose in the vBSEO CP? (vBSEO of course seems to run the forums from the site root, so I guess my situation is more complicated)

I have a few site content-based forums, and instead of them showing up under "/forums/forum-id/" I'd want to simplify it to just "/news/" or "/articles/" without the useless /forums/ directory in the way. This then would also require that it applies the rewrite to the actual links inside of webpages, so that I don't have broken URLs.

I know this certainly isn't available by default, but can this be done? I'm a fairly proficient coder, and I'd imagine however the vBa CRRs are done that this would be the same.

(That is of course assuming that vBa CRR thread addresses when the forums are in their own directory, and vBa is in the root)
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So I guess that was my biggest question that encompasses the last two.. Does the vBa CRR have some workaround for the situation where the forums have their own directory?

==== End of Rewrite Questions ====

What exactly is cached if I enable XCache support? Does it remove some of those global queries vBSEO will add?
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I'm assuming this will handle all old links by redirecting them?

Also, I'm contemplating pitching vBSEO to my friend with a very very large forum. (Over 3M posts) He likes a lot of what vBSEO does, but I have a question about the old URL redirects..

The problem is that a LOT of his content is linked to using the link structure from vB 2.x. I'm pretty sure this would break the redirects set up by vBSEO, unless there is "legacy" support of some kind. If I remember correctly a typical link would be "/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=XXXXX" as you can see there are two things wrong, one being that 2.x for some reason kept "s=" for where the SessionID should have been, and two, you can see the links use "threadid" or "postid" instead of the shorter one letter URLs.

So do the proper rewrite rules exist for vBSEO to redirect old 2.x links? Or are they at least available somewhere on here? (Since I can't access barely any of the forum)
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Well, I am getting tired of typing... I am asking too many questions.

I will update this when I think of any more, and I apologize again for asking so much. But $160 is a lot to me! (Or, well, to the person who'd buy it for me.)

And sorry also if any of these are common knowledge.. I've looked around for some kind of extensive FAQ and I can't seem to find one... I'm also still doing a lot of reading here, just guess I haven't read the right stuff!

Thank you.

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Edit #1 - Also, do I have non-expiring access to the Demo area? I've signed up and have access but it doesn't mention anything about time limits.

Thanks.

Let me try replying all your questions

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

Does anyone keep a compatibility list anywhere of 3rd Party vB modifications that break when enabling vBSEO? I've seen a few reported here and there as vBSEO being the cause (or result of the author not taking the possibility of vBSEO into account), but I'm not sure how often it happens.

vBSEOworks with all known vBulleitn modifications. All found problems are solved within support tickets or forums.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

Can the payment for vBSEO be set up as a gift? (If I get this it will initially be gifted to me, then I may or may not take over renewing it yearly)

The purchaser can buy the license for your domain. Or make the payment under your username. This is not hard to do.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

How well does this install on top of heavily modified styles? I've changed the entire code structure of many templates, removing unneeded tables, giving a more semantic structure, etc. I imagine there is also a lot of code that changes the page in realtime, and do both these scripts look for the most specific code possible? I can't have it be looking for HTML tags that aren't there anymore!

It is pretty easy to do. My forum Ayyas ( regular vbulletin forumhome ) will be a perfect example for you. Installation of vBSEO takes around 3 minutes and another 15 minutes for configuring the options.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

I have no access to the Rewrite section, so I have a few questions pertaining to the CRRs for vBSEO and other 3rd party addons:

You can always check vBSEO Demo from https://www.vbseo.com/demo/

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

How is CRR for vBadvanced and vBa Links implemented? As seen in the demo it seems that the CRR box available only allows rewrites to files inside the /forums/ directory. Is there a modification that moves this back a directory to the root of your domain? My vBa index.php file is in my root directory, and Links resides in its own directory by default.

You can use vBSEO CRRS out of forums folder as well. You just need to prepare a .htaccess within that folder. A lot of users are using domain.com/forum/ domain.com/gallery/

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

This same modification that (seemingly) enables vBSEO to rewrite outside the directory for things like vBa/Links.. Does it also perform the replacements to links in the code? For instance the Navigation module links to each of your vBa pages, so would it rewrite these links as the page loads, just as it rewrites all the thread links on a page?

ALots of people also use domain.com/forum/ and domain.com/index.php as vbadvanced cmps index and all forum , thread urls are rewritten

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

And could I change this same rewrite modification to apply to a few select forums themselves?

If i understand you correctly it is not possible currently. You cannot disable rewrite option for forumid x

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

For instance, here at vBSEO, if I were to want to have a special URL just for "f5" so that it'd become "vbseo.com/announcements/" and keep all other forums at the default I choose in the vBSEO CP? (vBSEO of course seems to run the forums from the site root, so I guess my situation is more complicated)

Currently vBSEO uses same rewrite option defined from vBSEO COntrol Panel to all forum. You cannot choose a different option for forum x and forum y.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

I have a few site content-based forums, and instead of them showing up under "/forums/forum-id/" I'd want to simplify it to just "/news/" or "/articles/" without the useless /forums/ directory in the way. This then would also require that it applies the rewrite to the actual links inside of webpages, so that I don't have broken URLs.

If yuor forum files resist inside forums directory as far as i know it is currently impossible to write without /forums/ . However if you want a structure like that you can move your vbulletin installation from forums to doamin root. You can rename vBulletin index.php as forum.php and rewrite that as domain.com/forums/ and have your forums named as "/news/" or "/articles/" For your current indexed urls we can asist you creating a .htaccess file that redirects all requests to new locations.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

I know this certainly isn't available by default, but can this be done? I'm a fairly proficient coder, and I'd imagine however the vBa CRRs are done that this would be the same.

(That is of course assuming that vBa CRR thread addresses when the forums are in their own directory, and vBa is in the root)
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So I guess that was my biggest question that encompasses the last two.. Does the vBa CRR have some workaround for the situation where the forums have their own directory?.

As i stated before , this is pretty easy to handle.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

What exactly is cached if I enable XCache support? Does it remove some of those global queries vBSEO will add?

vBSEO will catch vbseo data with xcache and yes it does remove some global queries.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

I'm assuming this will handle all old links by redirecting them?

Also, I'm contemplating pitching vBSEO to my friend with a very very large forum. (Over 3M posts) He likes a lot of what vBSEO does, but I have a question about the old URL redirects..

The problem is that a LOT of his content is linked to using the link structure from vB 2.x. I'm pretty sure this would break the redirects set up by vBSEO, unless there is "legacy" support of some kind. If I remember correctly a typical link would be "/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=XXXXX" as you can see there are two things wrong, one being that 2.x for some reason kept "s=" for where the SessionID should have been, and two, you can see the links use "threadid" or "postid" instead of the shorter one letter URLs.

So do the proper rewrite rules exist for vBSEO to redirect old 2.x links? Or are they at least available somewhere on here? (Since I can't access barely any of the forum)

vBSEO is currently running on very big vBulletin sites. I am not exactly sure if threadid=xxx will be rewritten however your friend can request assistance on how to modify vBSEO files to work correctly within a support ticket.

Originally Posted by jw0ollard

Well, I am getting tired of typing... I am asking too many questions.

I will update this when I think of any more, and I apologize again for asking so much. But $160 is a lot to me! (Or, well, to the person who'd buy it for me.)

We are happy to answer all your questions For your knowledge vBSEO price is 149$

Oops! $150, then. Guess I'm thinking of vBulletin itself.

Also, RE: changing /forums/ to /news/ or /articles/ depending on the forum... I guess that won't work anyway as I already have pages at those directories! *doh*

It's just that "www.domain.com/forums/articles/article-name-XXXX.html" gets awfully long and the "/forums/" makes no sense being there, since that specific forum is geared toward site content, and not the user discussion aspect.

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So are you saying there is absolutely NO way I can define my own custom /forum_path/ for each forum? There must be some way to code this.. I'm very resourceful.

For instance, I have very long forum names... I certainly wouldn't want them showing up as "/forums/very-long-forum-name/index.html". There's absolutely NO way I can get for instance, my "Site Feedback/Questions/Announcements" forum to say "/forums/feedback/index.html"? How would vBSEO even handle the forward slashes in my forum title? Convert to HTML Entities? Wouldn't want my URL being "/forums/site-feedback/questions/announcements/index.html"!!!!

I'm sure there is SOME method of custom coding I can do to achieve this. Right?

Please let me know,

Thank you. (and thank you very much for your help thus far)

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P.S. - I guess most of these questions are simply my inability to view any of the code... I guess if I just took the plunge and bought the software I'd be able to answer the questions myself. Good thing vBSEO has visible code now!

That is possible You can use forum slugs : vBSEO Slugs - Custom Forum Titles

So, hmm, I think my original idea is probably doable then? Regarding custom "directories" for forums? Ex. /forums/ changes to /articles/ but only for certain forum.

1. Move files back to root.
2. Change index.php to forum.php as to not conflict with vBa
3. Rewrite forum.php to "/main/" or "/community/" or simply "/forum/" or leave it as is
4. Set up rewrite to do either "/f_id/" or "/forum_id/" for each forum.
5. BUT, then set up slugs for my site content forums, something like so:

PHP Code:

    $vbseo_forum_slugs = array(
12=>'news',
78=>'media',
13=>'reviews',
26=>'interviews',
87=>'articles'
    ); 


So it'd APPEAR as if all the regular forums were just that, and that my content forums had special names.

Right?? I sure hope so!! This has me very excited to get vBSEO.

Hope I'm not missing anything major. Thank you for your help, Mert!

P.S. - Do slugs work for sub-forums or do sub-forums just appear hierarchically under their parents? I'd image the latter isn't done because of forums with many nested sub-forums..

I don't like bumping, but I really need to know if vBSEO can handle what I described above.

Thanks!

P.S. - Regarding Step #3 specifically, is there any actual way in vBSEO (default or custom) to keep /forums/ (FORUMHOME) at the same level as my actual forums (FORUMDISPLAY)? I know this is technically wrong, since the forums are hierarchical, but I still think /forums/ is prettier than /forum.php.

Other than Step #3, I think what I mention is doable by default in vB and vBSEO, but I want to make sure before I purchase.

Thanks again.

Hello Jon ,

As i stated that it can be done

Regarding step 3 vBSEO uses forums/ instead of forum.php

Don't think you're understanding me exactly...

I want to move my vBulletin to the site root and have FORUMHOME and FORUMDISPLAY on the same level on the site.

So, something like:

Code:

// FORUMHOME
http://www.example.com/forums/
// FORUMDISPLAY (Normal forum)
http://www.example.com/f1/
// FORUMDISPLAY (Custom forum slug)
http://www.example.com/articles/

I would like to keep FORUMHOME as "/forums/" but then have all links point back a level so a link would appear like so:

Code:

<a href="./f1">Link to Normal Forum</a>
<a href="./articles">Link to Forum with special slug</a>

I imagine I can still rename it to "forum.php" since vBadvanced will be in the root as well, and then I can put my own .htaccess rule to rewrite "forum.php" to "/forums/" but still have the links on FORUMHOME be correct.

I just do NOT want "www.example.com/forums/f1" or "www.example.com/forums/articles/" because it would be repetitive and unnecessary, and I want the shortest URLs possible.

So, in summary, I'm saying that I know putting it in the site root will work, but I'm just most unsure that I'll still be able to have FORUMHOME display as /forums/.

If I have to keep it as "forum.php" in the URL then I guess that is fine. I will simply create my own .htaccess rule to rewrite any requests for "www.example.com/forums/" to "www.example.com/forum.php".

vBSEO forums structure is :

all vbulletin files is located at root
forum.php is used as vbseo.com/forums/
forumdisplay pages as vbseo.com/f1/ and if vBSEO used forum slugs it can be vbseo.com/articles/ so what you want is exactly as same as vBSEO structure

No need for custom htaccess. With vbseo's CRR's (custom rewrite rules) you can easily set up forums.php => forums/ in the vbseoCP.

I do something similar here on a site i'm setting up:

forum is installed in root
renamed via vb index.php to forums.php

MetalCore Maniacs <-- custom home page not made yet on index.php
MetalCore Maniacs <-- CRR to forums.php
Intros - MetalCore Maniacs <-- non-nested on /forums/ for forumhome


Now, i CANT do
/f15/ -> intros becuase the slugs only work on [forum_title]

You will have to use a [forum_title] re-write instead of f[forum_id] like i use in order to pull it off.

Oh, I wasn't aware the slugs only work if you have it set to [forum_title]. :(

It's fine, though, I have few forums and I could just put in "f1, f2, f3, etc" for the unimportant forums that I don't want to have custom slugs. I mean, they WILL be custom slugs, but I'll just give them f(forumid) for the ones that I think are unimportant to have the forum title in the URL for.