Topic: AceSEF & SOBI2 & XMap

[aboututila]

Belaire Technologies,

In an attempt to help others, I have summarized our 'off board' discussions regarding the use of the SobiSEF plugin and 3rd Party Joomla! SEF Extensions (AceSEF, sh404SEF, etc) and posted & 'stickied' the topic here SobiSEF plugin and 3rd Party Joomla! SEF Extensions (AceSEF, sh404SEF, etc)

Regards - Mark

[PhilH]

Thought I would update you on my experience with AceSEF. Depending on the version you use AceSEF is either crap or very good. The last two versions have completely hosed my sites.

A word to wise...don't use AceSEF on a production site until is becomes stable. Currently it is advanced beta at best.

For some background see http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?f=544&t=513846&p=2153213#p2153213

[Belaire Technologies]

PhilH - This happens to all software.  So it's not surprising.  I remember once when joomla released a patch that caused the joomla app to stop working. 

I don't think there is another app out there works as easy as Ace and with so many other 3rd party supports.   


Also, it looks like they fixed the issue as of May 9th with the latest release.  Are you having more problems?

I'm actually hoping the joomla 1.6 makes SEF native no matter what extension you are using.

[PhilH]

Nope, not fixed. Are you running it on a live site?

[Trinity]

I'm actually hoping the joomla 1.6 makes SEF native no matter what extension you are using.

Already Joomla 1.5 creates FURLs for other extensions. But this is limited by nature. Joomla does not know how a component creates an URL. E.g. Sobi2:
From where Joomla should know that a Sobi2-URL has a part which is called "sobi2Task"?
From where Joomla should know that if "sobi2Task=sobi2Details" the details view of an entry is shown and the title of the shown entry which is stored in one of the Sobi2 tables, which Joomla does not know, has to be used to create a search engine friendly URL?
Same with the category names. From where Joomla should know when and how to create a URL with the name of a Sobi2 category?

You see, it is not possible for Joomla to create FURLs for 3rd party extension as you expect. Joomla already "hides" the Itemid, because this is a known part of the URL.

And this is also not possible for any SEF component. Each SEF component needs a specific file for each component where the "rules" for creating SEF URLs for a component are specified.

This is the same with Joomla. If the author of a 3rd party component writes a Joomla router file which specifies the rules for creating the FURLs, Joomla uses this file to create search engine friendly URLs. This is what SobiSEF does. SobiSEF is a Joomla router file for Sobi2 component to create SEF URLs for Sobi2 without the need of a SEF component - just Joomla native.

Trinity

[PhilH]

True but benefits of something like AceSEF is the ability to control meta info at a granular level, customize url rewriting per component and eliminate duplicate urls.

The duplicate url is chief among my concerns in terms of SEO. Case in point. SOBI generates a large number of duplicate urls which is not good in my opinion. When AceSEF is working properly the site will show only one url for the listing per category.

[Trinity]

Hi PhilH,

SOBI generates a large number of duplicate urls which is not good in my opinion.

SobiSEF doesn't generate duplicate URLs, except the administrator of the site has set this in the settings in the plugin.

Trinity

[PhilH]

But SobiSEF does not play well with others. 

Trinity..no offense intended. Love SOBI2 but want an all around solution for SEF, meta, url control, etc...

[Trinity]

but want an all around solution for SEF, meta, url control, etc...

I don't want to say not to use AceSEF 
I just wanted to clarify the statement about Joomla "native" SEF for 3rd party components.

But SobiSEF does not play well with others. 

Sorry, not true 

Other SEF components are often not able to play with native Joomla router files (like SobiSEF).
If using a SEF component, you can use either only native Joomla SEF or only SEF URLs created by the SEF component. This is not a problem of SobiSEF (or any other native Joomla router).
But fortunately, in the meantime a lot of SEF components have the possibility to "allow" native Joomla SEF for components which have a native router file (I don't know how AceSEF handles native router files for components).

Trinity

[PhilH]

Point taken. I should have said "But SobiSEF does not play well with non native SEF components".