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.

[SkuZZy]

What's the problem freeshares? The links are working fine.

[jbourke]

I installed this hack and am getting a 404 error whever I click on a forum...

http://rcgroups.com/archive/

It looks like I'm not alone. Is this possibly due to some apache redirect?

Jim

[jbourke]

So there will be no question about my configuration, I copied the "forum" file to "forum.php".

The following link works: http://www.rcgroups.com/archive/forum.php/17.html

But this does not: http://www.rcgroups.com/archive/forum/17.html

So I think there must be some setting that governs what kinds of files are processed by the php engine. Can anyone help me with this?

Jim

[SkuZZy]

Originally posted by jbourke
So there will be no question about my configuration, I copied the "forum" file to "forum.php".

The following link works: http://www.rcgroups.com/archive/forum.php/17.html

But this does not: http://www.rcgroups.com/archive/forum/17.html

So I think there must be some setting that governs what kinds of files are processed by the php engine. Can anyone help me with this?

Jim

It's an .htaccess problem.

Did you upload the included .htaccess file to the directory? That is what forces the "forum" file into php mode. If you're running apache, should be no problems. If you have uploaded the .htaccess file and it's still not working, then try uploading the .htaccess file into your root directory (lowest directory you can go to) being careful not to overwrite any existing .htaccess file. You may just want to append it to the exisiting one.

[jbourke]

Hmmm...it's probably something simple, but I'm stumped.

The .htaccess file is in the proper place. I've played with the permissions and ownership of the file but haven't had any luck.

Jim

[freeshares1]

Originally posted by SkuZZy
What's the problem freeshares? The links are working fine.

I didnt have a problem, I was just posting it so that it might help some others.

It works great and thanks for sharing this hack.

[Carsten]

Originally posted by jbourke
I installed this hack and am getting a 404 error whever I click on a forum...

I have the same problem.

Originally posted by SkuZZy


It's an .htaccess problem.

Did you upload the included .htaccess file to the directory? That is what forces the "forum" file into php mode. If you're running apache, should be no problems. If you have uploaded the .htaccess file and it's still not working, then try uploading the .htaccess file into your root directory (lowest directory you can go to) being careful not to overwrite any existing .htaccess file. You may just want to append it to the exisiting one.

The .htaccess file is in the directory and also in the root directory.
I'm running Apache 1.3.27

[jbourke]

Ok, I figured it out.

The issue is that the directory has to have "AllowOverride" set for the archive directory. This needs to be done within the httpd.conf file.

Some people here are probably using virtual hosts and they tend to set up their servers so that users can override options in any directory. Apparently the default apache installation doesn't do this.

A couple of links I found helpful while researching this:
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/howto/htaccess.html
http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/stopping.html

This is a great hack!

Jim

[Guidster]

Originally posted by 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).

What exactly is the Google dance? I saw the Goggle bot feel me out last night by looking only for the robots.txt and nothing else. Is this the "dance" before I get nailed and indexed by them? I sure hope so! Great Hack by the way!

[cobradude]

I'm using w2k & IIS. My archives show top level only, but when clicking on one of the links, I get a 404 file not found error, which I would assume has to do with the files with no extensions not executing as php (limitation due to .htaccess not working).

Is there a work around for this on iis?

Thanks for any help.