Understanding VB5 URL format and .htaccess

[karlm]

Hello all!

The new VB5 URL format seems to be alike this:

http://mywebsite.com/forum-layer1/layer2/345id-thread-name

Great.

In the past, we could showthread.php?t=345 to get to the same thread regardless what forum it resided in.

http://mywebsite.com/showthread.php?t=345

It literally didn't matter where it was, whether it got move, redirected etc. all sorts - you could always get to your post using that snazzy showthread.php


Today, showthread.php doesn't seem to exist and the numbers for identifying posts have been changed, so topic #501 no longer is topic #501, instead it's something like topic #12345

I realise there is some kind of operation in place to redirect old 'showthread' to the new format.

But, if I want to create an .htaccess to move old topics to new URL formats, where do I even begin?

The site, unfortunately, went through a series of changes for URL layout (I'd set my preferences then another admin changed it, then it changed again, then I had to upgrade to VB5 due to a mistake I'd made with the test forum)...

So the most listed format for is:

http://mywebsite.com/345id.htm
(ie it had a name of the domain/forum-name/12345.htm

But the new URL is:

http://mywebsite.com/forum/layer1/layer2/345id-thread-name


The team at vBulletin.com are pushing allllll the blame on VBSEO even though it used the same ID found in 'showthread.php' for whatever format you used in VBSEO settings.

For example, showthread.php?t=12345 was the same as the VBSEO format of domain/forum/idname.htm both would direct you to the same thread.

Can I possibly get some assistance with writing a .htaccess rule to redirect the old domain/forum/idname.htm to the "new & improved" VB5 version of

http://mywebsite.com/forum-layer1/layer2/345id-thread-name

?

Any help immensely appreciated.