VB3 Easy Archive

OK, this isn't the nicest way of doing it I'm sure, but it works!

What this does is change the path of archive files in VB

from /forums/archive/index.php/.......

to /archive/......

In theory google should spider the archive pages better, as they do not look php generated. My archive (www.martialartsplanet.com/archive) is certainly getting google picking it up, where it was not before.

I've only tested this on one site - let me know how it goes!

[AWS]

I'm working on a way to make it work on IIS. You have to use adutils.vbs to enable script mapping on the webserver. I'm working on the new archive script that can be used to replace the current script if you run IIS.
I should have this done within the next 2 weeks.

There is a hack to use isapi_mod_rewrite in the vb 2 beta hack section which works well to rewrite the forumj urls. I used it until I went with vb3. With vb3 the urls are spidered very well.

[gmarik]

James, thank you, it's what I was waiting for!

[JamesFrost]

Originally Posted by ChrisSy

excellent thanks!, thanks for the quick reply

Chris - did the new instructions work OK for your setup?

[dethfire]

I couldn't quite get mine to work because my forum are deep in a file structure like root/site/forums/archive and I couldn't figure the path changes I'd need to make.

on another note, had anyones vb3 actually been spidered? I've had mine up on a big forum for a month and nothing has been spidered.

[JamesFrost]

Originally Posted by dethfire

I couldn't quite get mine to work because my forum are deep in a file structure like root/site/forums/archive and I couldn't figure the path changes I'd need to make.

on another note, had anyones vb3 actually been spidered? I've had mine up on a big forum for a month and nothing has been spidered.

PM me your site's URL and I'll have a look if you like.

I'm still waiting for the spiders to pickup the forums - I was hoping this hack would improve things. It used to take around 3 months to get fully spidered on Google, but I'm not convinced this is the case anymore. Keeping fingers very crossed!

[Vivi Ornitier]

I don't get it, why must you rename the archive folder to archiveold if you have a deeper forum structure? Wouldn't it function the same? I"m confused,

[JamesFrost]

Originally Posted by Vivi Ornitier

I don't get it, why must you rename the archive folder to archiveold if you have a deeper forum structure? Wouldn't it function the same? I"m confused,

The archive works by having the archive php page called 'archive' (no extension) and using .htaccess to process this as php. If you already have a /archive directory then this will not work (as you cant have a 'archive' directory and an 'archive' file in the same directory.)

If your archive is in the normal /forums/archive then you dont need to worry about this.

[jons5150]

James...I am getting this error above my archive:

Warning: chdir(): SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. The script whose uid is 503 is not allowed to access ./../.. owned by uid 0 in /home/virtual/site1/fst/var/www/html/archive on line 28

Any help?

[dstruct2k]

SAFE MODE --- turn it off, or ask your host to

[JamesFrost]

Originally Posted by dstruct2k

SAFE MODE --- turn it off, or ask your host to

Thanks dstruct2k - this should fix the issue short term.

I might look at a longer term fix in code, but I'm also thinking about re-writing the archive from scratch anyway, as I'm personally not keen on how it works. This would probably be several months away.