vRewrite - SEOed URLs for vBulletin

About

vRewrite is an advance but simple system to rewrite vB's URLs. The rewrite system uses preg_match_all and str_replace to rewrite the URLs. It will rewrite any URLs that are dynamic ex: showthread.php?t= to /the-forum/title-of-the-forum-id.html. Why? SEs (Search Engines) rate results based on filename. Not only that, but most SEs give a "boost" to static URLs (what we do here) versus dynamic URLs. vRewrite accomplishes both of this, for all URLs that a search engine (or a guest) will see.

Installation

Please download vRewrite.zip and read install.html for more information on how to install it.

Requirements

vRewrite assumes that you are using Apache with the mod_rewrite module enabled, and running vBulletin 3.5.x. However, if you ask for support here on IIS' module or on vBulletin 3.0.x - I will be more then happy to assist you.

Contributions

I would like to thank Chroder and Cole for assisting me release vRewrite. I could not have released it if it wasn't for them.

I would like to thank the following people/boards for helping beta test vRewrite and making it a better product.

Gaming Ultimate, BP Gaming, NBS Designz Cyclez, Hosting-Talk and Forum University.

Copyright

I've spent many hours working and perfecting vRewrite. The only thing I ask you to do is if you use it, please keep the link back. If you wish to put it in your style instead, simply remove or comment out that line. However, if you use vRewrite you MUST link back. That is the only thing I ask.

Known Issues

There are no known issues with the latest release (1.0).

Support / Issues

If you have any problems or discover a bug please post here in this thread. I have also included my email in the install.html email for one-on-one support. The only thing I ask you is please do not post this email address publicly - it is my personal email.

Changelog

1.5 Release - vRewrite 1.5 has become stable, and all users under 1.5 RC3 and 1.0 need to upgrade. Support for 1.0 will no longer be offered, and you will be told simply to upgrade. Please continue to keep all bug and feature suggestions on the bug tracker at:

http://www.techhelpforum.com/vrewrite

1.1 Release - Several bug fixes, and a few new features. Details here.

03/26/06 - Updated the thread to reflect vRewrite 1.5 Beta links. vRewrite files has NOT changed.

03/11/06 - Updated the thread to take advantage of vB.org's new prefix feature. vRewrite itself has NOT changed.

1.0 Release (02/19/06) - I have released the much awaited 1.0. This is the first stable release of vRewrite. All users now should be safe installing vRewrite. For more information, and how to upgrade, please see here.

1.0 Preview (01/12/06) - I have released a preview version of 1.0. This is the final version before 1.0 is considered stable. I believe everything should work in this new preview, but one bug (see known issues). Please see here for more information and how to upgrade.

01/05/06 - Updated ZIP to include a fix for boards running a table prefix. You do not need to upgrade unless you previously had SQL errors. You can upgrade by importing the product and choose "Allow Overwrite".

Donations

Any donations are very much appreciated! I do this out of my free time and work many hours on it - all for free. Anything to help is always very welcomed

If you use vRewrite, please click Install. This helps you keep track of additional upgrades and shows to me that you care about vRewrite


You may not post vRewrite ZIP or any files contained in the ZIP on any website. You may not also post any support requests/give support on any website other then this one, without my permission. If you do so, you will get a DMCA for copyright infringement. I do not want this spread to pirated users. Please stop piracy and do not share the source outside of this thread and vB.org/com. Thanks.

Support will only be obtained at:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/forumdisplay.php?f=182

[sellbuydomain]

pm you now

[croportal]

when you will release 1.0 version

[Snake]

Originally Posted by Immortal

I was able to reproduce all of that for 1.0 expect for that it needs IDs still. Removing the IDs will have to be a good majority of the code rewrite which will happen in 1.5. But, for the threads it's going to have %20s in the spaces, is that what you really want?

Yeah that's cool. And what exactly is "%20s" in the spaces? You've lost me.

[Dean C]

I have to say this is a very inefficient way of rewriting the URLs and I would strongly advise anyone against installing this modification. Not because it's similar to mine, as I welcome the comeptition and commend the authors for releasing their work for free, but because of the un-necessary queries run here there and everywhere.

There is absolutely no need to run a query to get the forum titles for example, that information is in the forumcache, and also the forumtitle is available in other variables depending on the page you are on. Most of all you have un-necessary regex's being run on pages they don't need to be run on. It's far more efficient to redirect old URLs to their new equivalent using .htaccess, than to to try and rewrite every rule everywhere or at least limit the regex's on pages they only need to be on.

As I said before, unless this modification's internal struture changes drastically, anyone using a large board will be using a completely un-necessary amount of resources to run it.

[Snake]

So Dean, tell me. What's so special about your SEO hack? Does it have more features than this already? Is it just well-coded and stuff like that?

[Dean C]

My SEO mod is not aimed at just rewriting URLs, when it comes out of beta it'll rewrite many sections of the vB HTML output, and also come with a sitemap generator of it's own and SEO tips in the readme. But the rewriting of URLs in my modification is done a lot more efficiently, the regexs are only called when they need to be. And no queries are run to get any of the information.

[Immortal]

Originally Posted by Aftermath

Yeah that's cool. And what exactly is "%20s" in the spaces? You've lost me.

When there is a space in any URL, it will create %20s. This is an example. Will change to:
This%20is%20an%20example

when you will release 1.0 version

Sorry, I didn't make my deadline like I was hoping. I've got all the functionalty that was wanted to be added, but that one bug still exists. I'm also working on getting the sitemap generator converted over to work with vRewrite

[Immortal]

Originally Posted by Dean C

It's far more efficient to redirect old URLs to their new equivalent using .htaccess, than to to try and rewrite every rule everywhere or at least limit the regex's on pages they only need to be on.

Coming from the man with the monstrous two rewrites?

[rootnik]

Originally Posted by Dean C

My SEO mod is not aimed at just rewriting URLs, when it comes out of beta it'll rewrite many sections of the vB HTML output, and also come with a sitemap generator of it's own and SEO tips in the readme. But the rewriting of URLs in my modification is done a lot more efficiently, the regexs are only called when they need to be. And no queries are run to get any of the information.

I'm gonna have to agree with Dean here. vRewrite does rewrite more urls, but is not near as efficient as Dean's SEO mod. It would be great if these coders could work together and create one SEO script that would rival vbseo

[Immortal]

Originally Posted by rootnik

I'm gonna have to agree with Dean here. vRewrite does rewrite more urls, but is not near as efficient as Dean's SEO mod. It would be great if these coders could work together and create one SEO script that would rival vbseo

What do you mean? Dean must be angry that his Mom didn't give him his cereal this morning, or exams are getting too tough. One of the small prices of being a coder that's still in school. vRewrite is just as efficient as Dean's. I can't say the same about vBSEO as it's encoded. If you find anything that's not "efficient" then let me know, and I'll be happy to investigate the problem.