vB Easy Archive FINAL - Search Engine Spiderable Hack! Get your posts listed @ google

-- If you've installed this hack, please click here! -- If you want to upgrade to vBulletin 3, look here: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=65703

[high]HOW GOOD DOES THIS HACK WORK??? >>> [/high]Over 29,000 pages spidered since January 1st!!!!!!! Visit http://www3.google.com/search?hl=en&...e+SkuZZy+Xenon to see all the pages this script has helped get spidered into google!

Sub-Forums have been added!

Final Version Released - February 10th

I added sub-forums in this final version, one of the most requested features to be added... but, sad to say... this will be the final version. I never got a chance to add some of the cool features I said, but I feel this archive has served it's purpose and hopefully will continue to do so for all the die hard users who stick with vb 2.2.9. I decided to make this the final version because vb3 is coming out soon and I think this archive is the best archive currently out. Sure, there are more flashy ones, but this one gets the job done and gets results. Hopefully this hack will live on for a while.
Edit by Xenon: Whenever there is a problem, i'll take a look at it, and perhaps add a feature or two

About this hack

This hack will help get all your threads listed in google and other search engines and get your threads easily spidered! It works by creating an archive and turning all your posts into .html format. It doesn't actually create the .html files though, but google thinks they are real! It uses mod_Rewrite. If you don't have mod_Rewrite, you can't use the scripts (sorry).

What does it do?

The purpose of this hack are to get your keywords from your forums listed in google and get people visiting them! Since these are all pure text and don't use tables or excess font tags, they are very friendly on bandwidth! This will display all your files in a nice text format that google will absolutely love! Visit the online demo below to see it in action!

Online Demos

To view a demo of this script, visit some of the "live" demos at the following sites:

http://www.destee.com/forums/archives
http://www.thrillnetwork.com/boards/archive/
http://www.truecountry.com/forums/history/
http://www.strategy-forum.de/easy_archive/index.php
http://www.pimprig.com/forums/archive/
http://www.jokersrewards.com/forum/history/
http://board.midibuddy.net/archive2/
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/forums/archive/
http://www.macfora.com/forums/archive/
http://www.rcgroups.com/archive/
http://www.codewebs.com/forums/archive/
http://www.lcdmod.com/forums/archive/
http://www.source-forums.org/vB/archive/
http://www.subduck.com/history/
http://www.thesistersthree.com/archive/
http://www.a51forums.com/archive/
http://www.yes-its-free.com/easyarchive/
http://www.wcgateway.com/forums/archive
http://www.toyotaimportsforum.co.uk/forum/archive/
http://www.prisontalk.com/forums/archive/
http://www.gamesites200.com/archive/
http://www.allthingsmoto.com/archive
http://www.2spoemas.com/foros/archive/
http://www.mysticwicks.com/archive/

Requirements

Apache
vBulletin 2.x
mod_mime installed
.htaccess
5 minutes of your time...


Known Problems/Confusion

Mod_mime - You will NEED mod_mime to run these scripts. Mod_mime is a free module which enables a directive called "ForceType". This allows you to use the .htaccess file included to force your files into php mode, which allows simple URL's, without .php in them. If you can see the front page of your archive, but get an error page when you click on any links then this is your problem. To fix it, you will need to install mod_mime, or ask your host to do it. It's a FREE module. For more information, visit http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_mime.html

Private forums - Private forums are NOT shown and they will NOT be spidered. Some people say the private forums show up, that is because you are logged in as the admin and the archive uses permissions. So anyone who has permission to view the private forums on your forums, will beable to view them on the archives also. But if you log out of your account OR log into an account that doesn't have access to them, then you won't beable to view them

Credits

Biggest credit goes to Xenon who originally coded the scripts. He is the man! Also thanks to everyone who tested it out for me and kept bugging me about releasing it (when I was too lazy to).

Agreement

By using these scripts & installing them, you agree to leave the small (virtually unnoticable) copyright text and links at the bottom of all pages. You also agree to leave jelsoft's copyright there as well. You can modify the scripts much as you want, but this portion must remain intact (links must stay) and visible. This is all we ask

Download Final

To install, just download the file below and open the "_readme.txt" file. All is explained there. Installation should only take a couple of minutes. If you have problems with this script, post them in this thread and I will try and get around to answering them.

[ZaonDude]

Couple of things, as I'm new here, ... but first: great hack! Thank you!

I received an identical error as freeshares1 did (the global.php unable to access the admin/config.php file) and solved it the same way by changing the full server UNC path to:
chdir("../forums");
require("global.php");



Second item... and I don't know if this was something peculiar to just my server or not, but the archives were displaying uber slow. I tried changing the 'include' command for the header/footer lines from:
include "$archiveurl/footer.php";
to:
readfile("http://www.yoursite.com/archives/header.txt");
(notice that i renamed the actual header.php file to header.txt). And, all of a sudden the whole archives site display became lightning quick! Not sure what that was about, but I wasn't familiar with the include command and I was with the readfile command which allowed web URLs, which is why I tried it. Again, not sure if the massive difference in speed was unique to my site or not.


Third item is that I'd like the order of threads displayed sticky first followed by most recent and ending with the oldest thread instead of the other way around... Is this what I change in the forum file:
$getthreadids=$DB_site->query("
SELECT
thread.threadid,thread.title
FROM thread
WHERE thread.forumid = $forumid
AND thread.visible=1
ORDER BY sticky DESC, lastpost
");

?? Do I change the 'DESC' to 'ASC' or something? Or, is it more complicated than that?


The last question/issue I have is with the main index.php display of the forums table. The individual forums (forums that contain threads) link properly and perfectly. However, the forum Groups (the non-indented titles that have indented forums beneath them) link to a blank page containing only part of my header/footer and no data. Everything else links/works great. Is there any way to fix this or better yet have only Group titles be plain text instead of hyperlinked?


Thanks, SkuZZy!!

[Guidster]

Originally posted by ZaonDude
Couple of things, as I'm new here, ... but first: great hack! Thank you!

I received an identical error as freeshares1 did (the global.php unable to access the admin/config.php file) and solved it the same way by changing the full server UNC path to:
chdir("../forums");
require("global.php");



Second item... and I don't know if this was something peculiar to just my server or not, but the archives were displaying uber slow. I tried changing the 'include' command for the header/footer lines from:
include "$archiveurl/footer.php";
to:
readfile("http://www.yoursite.com/archives/header.txt");
(notice that i renamed the actual header.php file to header.txt). And, all of a sudden the whole archives site display became lightning quick! Not sure what that was about, but I wasn't familiar with the include command and I was with the readfile command which allowed web URLs, which is why I tried it. Again, not sure if the massive difference in speed was unique to my site or not.


Third item is that I'd like the order of threads displayed sticky first followed by most recent and ending with the oldest thread instead of the other way around... Is this what I change in the forum file:
$getthreadids=$DB_site->query("
SELECT
thread.threadid,thread.title
FROM thread
WHERE thread.forumid = $forumid
AND thread.visible=1
ORDER BY sticky DESC, lastpost
");

?? Do I change the 'DESC' to 'ASC' or something? Or, is it more complicated than that?


The last question/issue I have is with the main index.php display of the forums table. The individual forums (forums that contain threads) link properly and perfectly. However, the forum Groups (the non-indented titles that have indented forums beneath them) link to a blank page containing only part of my header/footer and no data. Everything else links/works great. Is there any way to fix this or better yet have only Group titles be plain text instead of hyperlinked?


Thanks, SkuZZy!!

For the last item, I had to change the manner that my forums were displayed on the page and make a modification to the index.php file. My forum depth is set to one, but I have many subforums. I used to use a category-->Category-->forum format, but got blank paged like you. Now, I have a Forum-->Category-->Forums Hierarch where the catogories and the forums are subbed to only the top fourm. Here is an example:


Old Format:
4 Stoke Forum--> Used to be a category
Yamaha--Category
YZ426 Actual Forum.

In its original form, only the 4 stroke forum was listed and resulted in blank pages when clicked.

Here is the new format:

4 Stroke Forum-->Acts as a Forum
Yamaha--->Category
YZ 426--Acts as a forum. Note that this is NOT a sub of Yamaha any longer

Coupled with the following change to the index.php file, I have complete indexing of the site!

if ($depth<$forumhomedepth+1) {
echo "<ul>";
makeforumbit($forum['forumid'],$depth+3,$forumperms);
echo "</ul>";
Good Luck

[Angelus]

It's a very cool hack. And he is runing perfect
Thanks

[w596]

Wow! My site was being spidered for several hours this morning. I can't wait to see the listings.

Thanks for the cool hack Xenon and SkuZZy

This hack Rocks!!!

[pseudocode]

OK. Got my header and footer to display properly. But, still haven't been able to get the links to work. Still get an HTTP404 error. Any suggestions as to where I might look? Thanks!!

[thomas]

The hack is working fine for me, but I am still wondering how to display subfora.

[pseudocode]

Originally posted by pseudocode
OK. Got my header and footer to display properly. But, still haven't been able to get the links to work. Still get an HTTP404 error. Any suggestions as to where I might look? Thanks!!

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[SkuZZy]

Originally posted by pseudocode


Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Which links? Can you provide a URL to your archive and if possible paste your config.php file here. Did you upload the .htaccess file?

[SkuZZy]

Congrats to all who got majorly spidered

Google dance is happening now. You can still get spidered though. The main google spider usuaully happenjs 5 days after the dance begins, so get your archive up before the 5th of january and you will have a good chance at getting your posts included in the next google update! (end of january).

[freeshares1]

Originally posted by SkuZZy


Which links? Can you provide a URL to your archive and if possible paste your config.php file here. Did you upload the .htaccess file?

URL

www.jokersrewards.com/forum/history

Config (well the important bits) I hope this helps a couple of people.

Please edit if i am not allowed to post the below.



// Full PATH to your global.php file
chdir("../");
require("global.php");
$title="Jokers Rewards";
$forumurl="http://www.jokersrewards.com/forum";
$archiveurl="http://www.jokersrewards.com/forum/history";