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 was able to get the code snipet to work, it seemed I posted the message right after you posted or something. So I was able to add those 3 lines to my headinclude.

Regarding the links bringing you to somewhere you aren't expecting to go, you said I can try to reproduce it? All I have to do is hover my mouse on the urls on the front to see that they work and then click to see that I go somewhere else.

(It may just be the ones that have NEWPOST on the front - clicking them brings me to the wrong post on my board.)

*EDIT*
I tried your board techhelpforum I see a link that goes to a 404 (http://www.techhelpforum.com/jlcndcs...0-newpost.html) the rest go to the wrong location just like I was saying with mine!!!!

More examples on your site having my problem:
http://www.techhelpforum.com/the-old...8-newpost.html (brings you to http://www.techhelpforum.com/resolve...-help-651.html)

http://www.techhelpforum.com/site-ru...8-newpost.html (brings you to http://www.techhelpforum.com/site-rules/t--.html) you may want to check these out... just click on any link on your forumhome page, the very top one may work, but try the bottomish ones.

[yayvb]

Immortal,

Your site is experiencing the same thing as mine, hopefully you can fix the problem. It doesn't just look that way for me or something right?

The forums that have the newpost in the URL on the front page go to the wrong place.

[yayvb]

I think I found something interesting:
If vrewrite is enabled then when I click on the links I am brought to other rewritten forums (but like I said I only see this problem happening with the newpost links on the forumhome front page).

If I enable it, refresh the main page so that all the links are rewritten, but instead of clicking a link and going to the wrong place, I disable the hack in another browser, then when I click the same rewritten link, I am actually brought to the right place. I tested this several times. So this tells me that the .htaccess file is working properly and the problem lies within the hack itself.

Hope I helped atleast a little.


*Edit*
Another interesting finding is that if while enabled on your site (and I'm sure mine too) if you have take a rewritten (NEWPOST) url like this one: http://www.techhelpforum.com/google-...0-newpost.html
and for instance just change the number to a number lower, you go to a different (but still wrong) forum. Does that help?

[nintendo]

Originally Posted by Immortal

If you find a bug, please let me know so I can fix in the next version.

Creating a reply generated a 404 error page.
forumpostersunion.com/test-board/t-test-92-page.html#post623

RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/t\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\-page\.html$ showthread.php?t=$3&page=$4&is_vrewrite=yes [L]

fixed it. (For older apache versions, not having a \ before - or a period in the code for the new URL can generate an Internel Server Error message, a $ should be at the end of the code for the new URL, and security wise, ([^.]+) is better.)

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/t\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)/go=([^.]+)$ showthread\.php?t=$3&goto=$4&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/p\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+).html$ showthread\.php?p=$3&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^f\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\-page([^.]+).html$ forumdisplay\.php?f=$2&page=$3&order=desc&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^f\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+).html/page([^.]+)daysprune([^.]+)\-order([^.]+)\-sort([^.]+)$ forumdisplay.php?f=$2&page=$3daysprune=$4&order=$5&sort=$6&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^f\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+).html/daysprune([^.]+)\-order([^.]+)\-sort([^.]+)$ forumdisplay\.php?f=$2&daysprune=$3&order=$4&sort=$5&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^f\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+).html$ forumdisplay\.php?f=$2&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^u\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+).html$ member\.php?u=$2&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\-newpost\.html$ showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/t\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\-page([^.]+)\.html$ showthread.php?t=$3&page=$4&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/t\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\-page\.html$ showthread.php?t=$3&page=$4&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/t\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\.html$ showthread.php?t=$3&is_vrewrite=yes [L]
RewriteRule ^markread.html$ forumdisplay\.php?do=markread [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/p\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\.html#([^.]+)$ showthread.php?p=$3#post$4 [L]
RewriteRule ^print\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\.html$ printthread.php?t=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^sendtofriend\-([^.]+)\-([^.]+)\.html$ sendmessage.php?do=sendtofriend&t=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^search\-([^.]+)\.html$ search.php?do=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)\-([^.]+)/newthread\.php$ newthread.php?do=newthread&f=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/newpostnoquote\-([^.]+)\.php$ newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^([^.]+)/newpost\-([^.]+)\.php$ newreply.php?do=newreply&p=$2 [L]
RewriteRule ^p\-([^.]+)\.html$ showpost.php?p=$1&postcount=$1 [L]

[nintendo]

Two other bugs....

php-duplicate-content-removal-80-newpost.html

goes to

scripts-and-coding/t--.html

(All most all boards with only one thread go to that type of URL.)

If you have a forum linking to a URL on the same domain that is a mod to vBulletin, like the directory hack, it links to

.com/browselinks.php?c=5
instead of
.com/links/browselinks.php?c=5

The cause of that error is

<if condition="THIS_SCRIPT != 'index'"> <base href="$vboptions[bburl]/" /> </if>

[trilljester]

Confirming your bug reports, nintendo. I'm having the same newpost error as mentioned.

I've had to temporarily disable this, I've gotten 3 emails from users already complaining about wrong links. I've got faith in ya Immortal, though, you'll get it fixed!

[Immortal]

Thanks, I'll take a look at it. Not sure why it's doing that either.

[hbalagh1]

this is agreat, how ever i have an error with one of my user names

Nicole'sLilPetites is the username and when clicked on to view profile it comes up with a not registered user ....the url comes up as http://www.mydomain.com/u--.html

[yayvb]

Immortal don't forget to take a look at your own site to see that the newpost url's on the front page are bringing users to everywhere but their intended destination.

[Immortal]

I didn't forget