Miscellaneous Hacks - vBSEO-style friendly urls using vB_Friendly_Url mechanism

This plugin enables the following url scheme:

vbulletin/forum-name/
vbulletin/forum-name/index10.html
vbulletin/forum-name/thread-title-145.html
vbulletin/forum-name/thread-title-145-7.html
vbulletin/members/admin.html

This is close to what vBSEO 3.5.2 generates in its default configuration.
he original goal of this plugin was to allow ditching vBSEO during vB3-vB4 upgrade without suffering a massive link rot.
At this moment, this plugin may be used as a starting point to implement some specific link scheme, but it's hardly useful by itself unless you have that particual vBSEO version; vBSEO 3.6.0 uses different link scheme not compatible with this one.

The plugin hooks to the built-in url generation/parsing mechanism of vB4, overriding vB_Friendly_Url_* classes, unlike vBSEO which does whole-page preg replacements even in vB4. It works within the normal vB data flow, so it's small, simple, and quite fast. It's also very likely to play well along with other plugins like Cerberus.

The links generated by this plugin do not always match those of vBSEO. There are slight differences in handling non-alphanumeric characters, and probably other issues too. However, it should accept all vBSEO thread links, in the worst case (CANON_STRICT) issuing some 301 redirects.
Most of vBSEO configuration options are not supported. In particular, link structure is hard-coded. If you need something unusual, you may use this as a template, but you'll need to tweak it to get urls you want.
Blog urls are not implemented; the site I wrote this for does not use vB blogs.
Calendar urls and anything else not handled by vB_Friendly_Url is not supported.

Configuration resides on the standard Friendly Urls page.
The plugin can work in modes other than FRIENDLY_URL_REWRITE. It's not really indented to do it, it's more of a fallback option, but it's implemented. In FRIENDLY_URL_ADVANCED mode urls look like this:

vbulletin/forumdisplay.php/forum-name.html
vbulletin/forumdisplay.php/forum-name-10.html
vbulletin/showthread.php/thread-title-145.html
vbulletin/showthread.php/thread-title-145-7.html
vbulletin/member.php/admin.html

The plugin allows custom forum slugs, i.e. replacing forum-name with something else without changing the forum title. It's not pretty, but it works.

Sample .htaccess rules for FRIENDLY_URL_REWRITE:

RewriteBase /url/path/to/vbulletin

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f
RewriteRule ^ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^ - [L]

# Use these two only if you have friendlyurl_acceptvb4 enabled
RewriteRule ^threads/(.*) showthread.php [L]
RewriteRule ^forums/(.*) forumdisplay.php [L]

RewriteRule ^members/([^/]+).html$ member.php [L]
RewriteRule ^[^/]+/index\d*.html$ forumdisplay.php [L]
RewriteRule ^[^/]+/[^/]+.html$ showthread.php [L]
RewriteRule ^[^/]+/?$ forumdisplay.php [L]

Adjust ^members/ to match your friendlyurl_memberdir if necessary.

Tested on vB 4.0.3 PL8 and vB 4.2.0. Should work on most 4.x.x versions.
Feel free to post bug reports, suggestions etc. in this thread.

[sodasusu]

i will try thx

[final kaoss]

Ok so what about us who are already using the vbulletin friendly url htaccess rewrite (minus vbseo). Does it handle redirecting traffic to the proper urls as well?

Also are there any changes to be made to the htaccess to achieve the urls above?

PHP Code:

vbulletin/forum-name/
vbulletin/forum-name/index10.html
vbulletin/forum-name/thread-title-145.html
vbulletin/forum-name/thread-title-145-7.html
vbulletin/members/admin.html 


[final kaoss]

Unfortunately there's something wrong with this plugin. This immediately appears when enabled. Disappears with plugin disabled. Also this only appears on forum.php

The other pages like threads, forums & member pages were rewritten though.

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 4864 bytes) in /home/content/v/g/c/vgchat/html/forum/includes/init.php(336) : eval()'d code(466) : runtime-created function on line 1

[dizzynation]

If you are going to install this, I highly recommend not doing so on a populate forum, perform it on a test site. Google is the main source for traffic for many forum owners, so please keep in mind that braking your urls will drop your SERPS like its hot.

[final kaoss]

All the more reason to await this guy's response.

[abdobasha2004]

what is the point of buying vbseo after vb4 ? !

[alex.sk]

Ok, first of all:
DO NOT CHANGE URL STRUCTURE ON A LIVE BOARD
if you care about your Google rankings.
I didn't expect any questions in this direction, so I didn't even mention it in the first post.
Use a test board. Plan your moves and have redirects ready for your old urls if you decide to move.

Ok so what about us who are already using the vbulletin friendly url htaccess rewrite (minus vbseo)

Major link rot.
Same as installing vBSEO on a live board, atop of existing vB4 urls. It's a change in url structure.

Currently the board with this plugin activated will not recognize standard vB4 urls (forums/ID-name, thread/ID-name etc) and will not redirect them to resp. forum/thread-ID.html urls. I can be done, btw, I just didn't even think of it.

Also are there any changes to be made to the htaccess to achieve the urls above?

RewriteRules from the first post are necessary for FRIENDLY_URL_REWRITE mode to work.
Same as with standard vB4 urls.

final kaoss, which vB version do you use?
That looks really bad, but the only runtime-created function in the plugin is used in array_map(..., preg_split(...)), I wonder what could go wrong there.
In any case, I guess I'll try it one something more recent than my 4.0.3 in a day or two, some maybe there will be updates from my side.

what is the point of buying vbseo after vb4 ?!

None?
For me, it's about moving from vB3+vBSEO to vB4 while keeping the links intact.
An alternative to this plugin being vB4+vBSEO, which, I totally agree, makes little sense.

[final kaoss]

I am using vb 420 PL2. Waiting for 421 and just skip PL3 altogether.

[Black Snow]

Originally Posted by final kaoss

I am using vb 420 PL2. Waiting for 421 and just skip PL3 altogether.

Is there going to be a 4.2.1?....