This is an add-on that allows you to make your Vanilla installation use search-engine-friendly urls rather than the standard ?Discussion=111 type of querystrings.

It requires Apache and mod_rewrite on your server. Be sure to read the readme.txt file for install instructions.

The July 1st update includes a number of new rules and fixes for problems that various people on various systems ran into.

You really should be using the .htaccess file which comes with Vanilla instead of this one, Wanderer (unless this one gets updated). This one can cause problems in various ways (mostly related breaking other extensions)

just over write the one by Dinoboff.

I didn't realize that there was an htaccess with the release. Is there? I don't see it in svn and the release archive comes straight from there...

Huh. You're right. I'm sure that there was a .htaccess file in one of the releases though, 1.0.3 perhaps. I think the difference was that at some point there was a version which didn't have this: #Extensions
RewriteRule ^extension/$ extension.php [QSA,L] Ah. I did a search, see this comment and the ones after it.

But I see the Friendly URLs add-on has been updated, and it all looks just fine now. :)

Those of you on Mac OS who can't see hidden files, can follow these instructions to make hidden file viewable in finder

http://www.osxfaq.com/DailyTips/02-2005/02-01.ws

Mark,
I've noticed that the discussion URLs don't redirect to automatically add the trailing slash. So, if I e-mailed this discussion URL to someone, and I forgot the trailing slash, it would fail, like this:

http://lussumo.com/community/discussion/5425/friendly-urls

...whereas that url should automatically redirect to:

http://lussumo.com/community/discussion/5425/friendly-urls/

Isn't there an easy RewriteRule that redirects to automatically the trailing slash for the discussions?

EDIT: Weird, I think this is working correctly in the Add-On, but it doesn't seem to be working on this forum.

Though, I am definitely seeing problems like this one:

http://lussumo.com/community/search

...which needs to redirect to:

http://lussumo.com/community/search/

Ok i have a couple of doubts here. I appreciate your reply with some help.

1) I'm encountering a problem with Friendly URLs add. When I click the link:

myforum.com/search/ or myforum.com/cetegories/ the browser said: HTTP 404 not found but I can still go to those pages with the old URLs search.php and categories.php

what is wrong here?

2) the browser still find all the old URLs with .php , it is supposed to happen? Then I have duplicated pages and that is not good. It is something wrong in the .htaccess ??

Pleassssse help

Thank you for your tip, neilroberts.
Unfortunately, the resync trick did not work for me. I had to reconfigure the page manager setting.

Adding one queston, can this extension be apply-able on a site running 2-byte language?
After applying this extension, when I point a discussion titled with 2-byte language, it reveals the link url something like these, ie
"/path/path/-/#item_0" or "/path/path//#item_0". Double / or - between /
The result was same with or without .htaccess. It seems that vanilla can not read .htaccess.
Something should be wrong with my setting.

Circumstances:
localhost on Mac OS 10.4.8
Apache 1.3 with mod_rewrite
PHP 5.2.0
MySQL 5.0.27

Extensions : Attachments 2.1 Category Jumper 1.0 CategoryRoles 0.5 Extended Application Form 1.0 Forced BBCode 0.1.0 Guest Post 1.4.1 Inline Images 1.3 JQThickBox 1.1.3 JQuery 1.1.4 Members Page 1.2.1 Multi File Upload 1.1 Page Manager 2.4.3 Sidepanel 1.0 Signatures 1.0.1 Transmogrifier 1.2 Vanillacons 1.3

Thank you for your reply, Wanderer.
Yes, I tried some test, putting .htaccess onto /WebServer/Documents/Vanilla/, /WebServer/Documents/, and even onto /WebServer/, and each time I restarted the Server. But the results are all the same.

Hi neilroberts,

I'm using Dinoboof htaccess and I'm not using the page manager extension. The browser (and search engines) are still finding all the old URLs with .php , it is supposed to happen? Then I have duplicated pages and that is not good. It is something wrong in the .htaccess ?? I have been told the htaccess needs a major clean effort because it is not very good.

There's a problem I experienced using the "Poll"-Extension by Jazzman but that could possibly affect other extensions as well when Friendy Urls is activated:

The Poll-Extension, when a poll is added to a discussion, inserts a <form%gt; to... vote.
Yeah, but that's not working with Friendly Urls enabled, because the form is started via
$this->Get_PostBackForm('frmVote')

This very method in Framework.Class.Control.php reads:
function Get_PostBackForm($FormID = '', $PostBackMethod = 'post', $TargetUrl = '', $EncType = '', $TargetFrame = '') {
$TargetUrl = ForceString($TargetUrl, $this->Context->SelfUrl);
if ($FormID != '') $FormID = ' id="'.$FormID.'"';
return '<form'.$FormID.' method="'.$PostBackMethod.'" action="'.GetUrl($this->Context->Configuration, $TargetUrl).'"'.($EncType != '' ? ' enctype="'.$EncType.'"' : '').($TargetFrame != '' ? ' target="'.$TargetFrame.'"' : '').'>'
.$this->PostBackParams->GetHiddenInputs();
}

As you can see, the $TargetUrl parameter is left to default which means the following line in Get_PostBackForm is executed:
$TargetUrl = ForceString($TargetUrl, $this->Context->SelfUrl);

In a discussion, this normally sets the target variable to comments.php which is, because Friendly Urls is activated, /discussion/ (slashes added to show it's a directory, that's not contained in the exact value if I remember correctly). So the form will read:
<form id="frmVote" action="http://vanilla.art-fx.org/discussion/" method="post">

Well, /discussion/ isn't accepted: this delivers a 404 error. What's missing? The discussion's ID and the url-slug of the discussion's title: /discussion/31/some-title.

I don't know whether this extension is the right place to mention that point, but as you, Mark, are programming Vanilla and this extension both yourself I hope that's no problem :)

Please fix this issue as soon as possible, making your Get_PostBackForm method work as it's intended so one can enable Friendly Urls and Poll.

DivineDominion,
Dinoboff's .htaccess is a good workaround for all of the Poll issues you're talking about.

http://lussumo.com/community/discussion/2803/

The Poll extension really needs to be tweaked a bit. For instance, you can fix the $TargetUrl issue on comment.php pages by making the following edits to the Poll add on:

Change Line 6 of /extensions/Poll/templates/poll_vote.php to be this:
'.$this->Get_PostBackForm('frmVote', 'post', 'voteform.php').'
...And then add the following below Line 6 of /extensions/Poll/conf/settings.php:
$Context->Configuration['REWRITE_voteform.php'] = 'comments.php';

...but doing that screws up the Poll in the Panel of the index.php pages. So, to get Polls to work on index pages you have make the Poll on index pages call an unedited/original version of templates/poll_vote.php. So essentially you create two templates, one for the index.php pages and one for the comments.php and have the Panel vote form call the original version.

But, the easiest thing to do is to just use Dinoboff's .htaccess for a quick fix.

Does anyone else have this AddOn installed with the 'Who's Online' extension?

I am experiencing a problem with viewing a user's account while already in a discussion. When I am viewing a Discussion and then click on someone's username under the 'Who's Online' box, it should take me to their user account but it doesn't. I am just sent right back to the conversation I'm viewing, but with a different URL at the top now.

For example, I am viewing the page:

http://www.fngeeks.net/vanilla/discussion/18/welcome/#Item_17

I then click on my username 'Gabe' under 'Who's Online' which has the HREF set to:

http://www.fngeeks.net/vanilla/discussion/18/welcome/account.php?u=2

and end up viewing the same Discussion instead of being taken to my user account info.

I have a feeling this is a problem with the .htaccess file and the RewriteRule (or lack thereof). Unfortunately I am not very good with mod_rewrite and don't understand the file that well.

The contents of my .htaccess file are as follows:

RewriteEngine On
Options +FollowSymLinks -Multiviews
#Discussions
RewriteRule ^discussions$ index.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussions/$ index.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussions/([0-9]+)$ index.php?page=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussions/([0-9]+)/$ index.php?page=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]+)$ index.php?CategoryID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]+)/$ index.php?CategoryID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)$ index.php?CategoryID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/$ index.php?CategoryID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]

#Comments
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/(.*)$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/(.*)/$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)/(.*)$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)/(.*)/$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+)/$ comments.php?DiscussionID=$1 [QSA,L]

#Categories
RewriteRule ^categories/$ categories.php [QSA,L]

#Account
RewriteRule ^account/$ account.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^account/([0-9]+)$ account.php?u=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^account/([0-9]+)/$ account.php?u=$1 [QSA,L]

#Search
RewriteRule ^search/$ search.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/([0-9]+)$ search.php?page=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/([0-9]+)/$ search.php?page=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/saved/([0-9]+)$ search.php?SearchID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/saved/([0-9]+)/$ search.php?SearchID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/saved/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)$ search.php?SearchID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^search/saved/([0-9]+)/([0-9]+)/$ search.php?SearchID=$1&page=$2 [QSA,L]

#Post
RewriteRule ^post/$ post.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^post/([0-9]+)$ post.php?CommentID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^post/([0-9]+)/$ post.php?CommentID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^post/category/([0-9]+)$ post.php?CategoryID=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^post/category/([0-9]+)/$ post.php?CategoryID=$1 [QSA,L]

#Settings
RewriteRule ^settings/$ settings.php [QSA,L]

#People
RewriteRule ^people/$ people.php [QSA,L]

#extension
RewriteRule ^extension/$ extension.php [QSA,L]

# Prevent some little bad effects of Friendly Urls on relative links in some
# extensions
RewriteRule ^(discussions|categories|search|post|settings|people|[0-9]+)/(extensions|themes|images|ajax)/(.*) $2/$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(discussions|categories|search|post|settings|people|[0-9]+)/(account.php|categories.php|comments.php|extension.php|index.php|people.php|post.php|search.php|settings.php) $2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+/){1,2}[^/]*/(extensions|themes|images|ajax)/(.*) $2/$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^discussion/([0-9]+/){1,2}[^/]*/(account.php|categories.php|comments.php|extension.php|index.php|people.php|post.php|search.php|settings.php) $2 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(discussions|account|search|post|[0-9]+)/.+/(extensions|themes|images|ajax)/(.*) $2/$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^(discussions|account|search|post|[0-9]+)/.+/(account.php|categories.php|comments.php|extension.php|index.php|people.php|post.php|search.php|settings.php) $2 [QSA,L]

#Pages
RewriteRule ^page/(.*)$ index.php?Page=$1 [QSA,L]

Anyone got this working? lol

Just tried it out now, changing round some stuff in the htaccess such as /categories/ to /cat/ and so on... but the actual URL retains /categories/ ... any reason? :S

I would guess its the same relative URL problem we saw yesterday...

Line 163: $Panel->AddListItem($ListName, $Context->GetDefinition($name["Name"]), "account.php?u=" . $name["UserID"],NULL,"title=\"$TimePast\"");
Should be: $Url = GetUrl($Context->Configuration, 'account.php', '', 'u=', $name['UserID']);
$Panel->AddListItem($ListName, $Context->GetDefinition($name["Name"]), $Url, NULL, 'title="$TimePast"');

Edit: More 'proper' use of GetUrl, thanks to finding Gprestion's fix: Who's Online # 42

Going on from this - wouldn't it be nice to have the same kind of thing for settings? That way, to change the settings for the Packer extension we would just type in /settings/Packer. The following seems to work well, but if someone who knew what they were doing could check it for fatal errors that would be great :) Of curse, then we need to get Vanilla to write the links like this (how?).

#Settings
RewriteRule ^settings/$ settings.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^settings/(.+)/$ settings.php?PostBackAction=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^settings/(.+)$ settings.php?PostBackAction=$1 [QSA,L]

This "extension" should be build in into vanilla, then nice short urls would be possible.
Doing it by .htaccess is completly wrong :(

but what you are asking is nevertheless possible. it would require changing the account page - another extension, or adding to this

Yeah, but I meant the other part. Parsing Short-Urls.
I'm not sure myself how to do it so it will work on alle servers.
I always use ORIG_PATH_INFO
$arguments = explode('/', $HTTP_SERVER_VARS['ORIG_PATH_INFO']);
However, this has nothing to do with the question above ;)

When you're on a Page Manager page, because those pages have /page/ artificially inserted into the URLs, it then causes other links on those pages to have /page/ inserted into them as well. Eg /people.php to sign in/out becomes /page/people.php (resulting in an error) etc..

How can I make the Page Manager pages not have the /page/ in front of them, so pages are like www.mydomain.com/pagename/ same as the rest of the friendly URLs?

Also how do I get the Contact Form extension to have a friendly URL?

Thanks in advance..

Is this supposed to make everything load slower ? Or did I do something wrong.

WallPhone, any news on Resilient's /account/username request?

I've tried multiple times to get the friendly URL's to work, but I keep getting the same problem. Vanilla will not allow me to keep a conf/setting.php file as it goes directly into update/install mode at which point it asks me to remove the conf/setting.php file before it can proceed. Any idea as to why Vanilla thinks I am trying to reinstall? I've even changed the settings file to include all of my own installations info - no difference.

Friendly Urls still needs some work.
It just isn't as friendly as it should be, IMO.

The Url structure should be more like a file structure.
vanilla dir
|
category
|
discussion

so categories would be:
/vanilla/category-name/
discussions would be:
/vanilla/category-name/discussion-name/

and if you can't do it that way you should at least get rid of all the numbers so discussions would be:
vanilla/discussion/discussion-name/
instead of:
vanilla/discussion/stupid-number/discussion-name/#item_another-stupid-number
The #item_ thing isnt as big of a deal because i'm guessing its for going to the last comment. but couldnt it say #pgbottom or something instead?

That should be fixed then. Cuz that aint friendly to me. :)