Show Thread Enhancements - External Link Titles, retrieve descriptive titles for URLs

Keywords: SHOWTHREAD, external, link, titles, URLs, SEO

Description:
Retrieves descriptive titles for external posted links. Allows for better link recognition and, in theory, could help increase page SEO.

Details:
I recall this being requested somewhere, so I decided to take a stab at it. This is yet another feature offered in vBSEO.

For those unaware of what this actually does.. by default, when a URL is posted without a description it looks like:
http://www.vbulletin.com

With this modification enabled, it will now look like:
vBulletin.org Forum - The Official vBulletin Resource!

Nicer, eh?

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Installation:

1. Download and import product-linktitles.xml via the Product Manager.
2. Enable the modification via AdminCP > vBulletin Options > External Link Titles Options (it is disabled by default)
3. ???
4. Profit!

Notes:
There's really no magic here, it polls for titles using the cURL() function. If for some reason your host does not have cURL() enabled, you're out of luck.

From time to time you may notice the occasional link that does not get titled -- this is due to either the fact that the url is not active or it either timed out waiting for a response. By default, the system will wait for 5 seconds before timing out. If you wish to modify the timeout, you may do so via the AdminCP.

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Comments:
As with all my hacks, this modification is provided free of charge. However, if you find this product useful and have money burning a hole in your pocket, feel free to make a small donation, I won't mind.. really.

Version History:

• 1.0.0 - Initial release, here's to hoping...
• 1.1.0 - Added the ability to blacklist specific domains from having link titles retrieved (configurable via the AdminCP)
• 1.1.1 - Wrapped returned titles in html_entity_decode(); to return properly decoded HTML characters.

Currently Known Bugs:

• None

* Please note that this modification was developed on a forum with a userbase of 1 (myself). I've tested it for basic functionality but I cannot guarantee functionality or behavior on your forum. So, please -- make backups before installing this product!

[SC-Bahamut]

Hello

Sorry, for my English, i am German.

I have a little Problem with intern Links in my Forum. Extern Links works perfect, but intern Links shows so:

Original Link:
h**p://w*w.support-community.net/showthread.php?t=1370

was to
Support-Community.net - Support rund um ihren Computer

Who can i make that the Title of the Tread (Horizontale Balken beim Booten), and not the Title of the Forum, was created ?

Greetz

[magnus]

Originally Posted by SC-Bahamut

Hello

Sorry, for my English, i am German.

I have a little Problem with intern Links in my Forum. Extern Links works perfect, but intern Links shows so:

Original Link:
h**p://w*w.support-community.net/showthread.php?t=1370

was to
Support-Community.net - Support rund um ihren Computer

Who can i make that the Title of the Tread (Horizontale Balken beim Booten), and not the Title of the Forum, was created ?

Greetz

It grabs the title provided by the page (the text found between the <title></title> tags). You would need to edit your templates and remove the forumtitle variable from within those tags.

[TrioxX]

Hi,

great hack! Installed it.

EDIT:

How can we change the pagetitle of internal sites, that all pages of the board will be shown as the real pagetitle (like search, boards...) ?

[Satz]

i have tried everythin still cudnt make it work on my forum , wud be pleased if some one can help me out

[TrioxX]

YOu must tell, what not work. Because we're no mindreader

[Satz]

no errors nothin , simply dont work after doing the installation

if i post the link , its good for mods here to treat me with an infraction

[TrioxX]

Link to your board?

[Satz]

ok here comes another infraction

www.wareztalk.com/forum < very new forum , so dont gimme an infraction it is just the domain name

[rwoscott]

Satz, To ask a silly question, have you enabled it, via the admincp?

Installed. Works great. Thanks.

[magnus]

Originally Posted by Satz

no errors nothin , simply dont work after doing the installation

if i post the link , its good for mods here to treat me with an infraction

The modification is disabled by default. Verify that you enabled it, as per the instructions:

2. Enable the modification via AdminCP > vBulletin Options > External Link Titles Options (it is disabled by default)