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

[yayvb]

I just took out that part of the .xml and from the .htaccess file and it does work (doesn't rewrite the front NEWPOST urls) woohoo. I scrolled down to see that it also didn't rewrite the NEWPOST urls on my xstats hack on the bottom of my site (lists recent posts, new members, top posters) which is good also.

However for some reason hovering over the usernames I saw that they were rather messed up. Some blatanly said other peoples user URLS rewritten, I saw mine for instance on someone elses, etc. I disabled the rewrite thing again to check to see the original .html output for the xstats on the bottom of my site and see it's just a simple member link http://www.420boards.com/member.php?u=1 and they all go to their correct locations.

Once rewritten the usernames on the rest of the site seem to work, but on the xstats I've noticed otherwise. I'll look further into this.

*EDIT* It looks like I see the bug in other places, but the only other place I found so far is the moderators box in a forum where you have several moderators. I can let that one slide somehow, I can disable showing mods if I have to.

Also it looks like when it's happening it's using someone elses rewritten URL and attaching the user ID to the end of an existing persons. For instance. My rewritten URL is this: http://www.420boards.com/u-420kid-1.html but I see another member has this: http://www.420boards.com/u-420kid-1.html4 or http://www.420boards.com/u-420kid-1.html8

Any ideas? As I said you can see instead of their userid in these cases generating their own rewritten url, it uses mine and spits it's own user id to the end.??

[Bhuwan]

Originally Posted by yayvb

I just took out that part of the .xml and from the .htaccess file and it does work (doesn't rewrite the front NEWPOST urls) woohoo. I scrolled down to see that it also didn't rewrite the NEWPOST urls on my xstats hack on the bottom of my site (lists recent posts, new members, top posters) which is good also.

However for some reason hovering over the usernames I saw that they were rather messed up. Some blatanly said other peoples user URLS rewritten, I saw mine for instance on someone elses, etc. I disabled the rewrite thing again to check to see the original .html output for the xstats on the bottom of my site and see it's just a simple member link http://www.420boards.com/member.php?u=1 and they all go to their correct locations.

Once rewritten the usernames on the rest of the site seem to work, but on the xstats I've noticed otherwise. I'll look further into this.

Are you talking about something like "u-420kid-1.html14" <-- " Amanda420's profile"

If so, I sent Tyler the fix, I am sur ehe'll make a new release in a few days.
I am very excited, I think most, if not all, of the known bugs will be fixed in his next update
We just have to be patient

[Bhuwan]

Originally Posted by yayvb

I just took out that part of the .xml and from the .htaccess file and it does work (doesn't rewrite the front NEWPOST urls) woohoo. I scrolled down to see that it also didn't rewrite the NEWPOST urls on my xstats hack on the bottom of my site (lists recent posts, new members, top posters) which is good also.

However for some reason hovering over the usernames I saw that they were rather messed up. Some blatanly said other peoples user URLS rewritten, I saw mine for instance on someone elses, etc. I disabled the rewrite thing again to check to see the original .html output for the xstats on the bottom of my site and see it's just a simple member link http://www.420boards.com/member.php?u=1 and they all go to their correct locations.

Once rewritten the usernames on the rest of the site seem to work, but on the xstats I've noticed otherwise. I'll look further into this.

*EDIT* It looks like I see the bug in other places, but the only other place I found so far is the moderators box in a forum where you have several moderators. I can let that one slide somehow, I can disable showing mods if I have to.

Also it looks like when it's happening it's using someone elses rewritten URL and attaching the user ID to the end of an existing persons. For instance. My rewritten URL is this: http://www.420boards.com/u-420kid-1.html but I see another member has this: http://www.420boards.com/u-420kid-1.html4 or http://www.420boards.com/u-420kid-1.html8

Any ideas? As I said you can see instead of their userid in these cases generating their own rewritten url, it uses mine and spits it's own user id to the end.??

Yeah this has been fixed. It was happening because the text was matching
member.php?u=userid

when it should have matched something like
member.php?u=userid'

That';s why you sometimes see a number after the .html -- it wasn't matching the full userid which caused this

[yayvb]

Sure you don't want to send me the fix and I'll make it right now to hold off until the new version comes out? You can pm me shh he won't mind.

[Bhuwan]

Originally Posted by yayvb

Sure you don't want to send me the fix and I'll make it right now to hold off until the new version comes out? You can pm me shh he won't mind.

I am two steps ahead of you - I pm'd yalready

[Bhuwan]

Originally Posted by yayvb

Sure you don't want to send me the fix and I'll make it right now to hold off until the new version comes out? You can pm me shh he won't mind.

I see you've implmented theFIX and it works ...I hope!

I'm off to bed! Longggggggg day at work tomorrow!!!

[Immortal]

Have a good night and thanks

Hopefully a new release will be released very shortly.

[yayvb]

Just so everyone knows, it works great now and I have Yahoo and MSN spiders right now spidering my new rewritten urls!!! Unbelievable!!

[yayvb]

Oh no...

Although the NEWPOST urls aren't being rewritten, they still bring you to the wrong page. I probably didn't remove enough from the .xml file, I should probably wait to see the update. Please hurry!!

*EDIT* It was just because I didn't remove a couple additional lines in the .xml file. All is well for now, but I can't wait for the update.

[John Diver]

Looking good, do you know when the next update will be on?

Going to install it after the next update.

Thanks!