Topic: Joomla!/SOBI2/SobiSEF - SEF URL's and breadcrumb/pathway construction

[floridaman2009]

Well in that case, I could unpublish the MENU items, purge the SEF Urls, navigate via SOBI2 Front Page, and thus recreate the Breadcrumbs and URLs correctly.

Once I have the correct breadcrumbs and urls, I can then republish the Menu.

What do you think?

Update: I just did the above. The urls are mostly correct, but the breadcrumbs still varies inconsistently.

[aboututila]

Max,

I presume that when you only had one Menu Item link to the SOBI2 Frontpage (and no other Menu Item links to SOBI2 Categories) all the Breadcrumbs were correct. Correct?
But when you re-published the Menu Item links to SOBI2 Categories, then the breadcrumbs varied inconsistently. Correct?

As I said previously,

I am having trouble understanding how this works if there are multiple Menu Items linked to a Component and how Application (Component) Route Building works.

I do not yet understand how Joomla!/SOBI2 determines which breadcrumb/pathway to use if there is more than one 'potential' breadcrumb to a SOBI2 Entry,
other than it seems;

... for any given SOBI2 Entry, the Joomla! breadcrumb/pathway will always? display the 'shortest path' to that SOBI2 Entry.

I need to do more work to try and understand this better.

Regards - Mark

[floridaman2009]

Update from my tests:

It seems that the Breadcrumb is created from the first instance [shortest like you said?] of the URL navigated to within the first CATEGORY LEVEL of any of the MENU groupings [and is later cached] so that if I reach:

domain.com/details/category1/company1.html - via menu/category1/sub-category1/product1 - the breadcrumb/title will be the same for any other navigation route - via menu/category1/sub-category"n"/product"n" - such that it will always show the same breadcrumb and title for the same url?

I'm trying to figure out if this is a sh404SEF setting that always defaults the entry view to the URL from the first category level? and why it doesn't include the sub-category and product levels in the entry details view of the url?

Does that make sense?

[aboututila]

It seems that the Breadcrumb is created from the first instance [shortest like you said?] of the URL navigated to within the first CATEGORY LEVEL of any of the MENU groupings [and is later cached] ...

Yes, I think it is from the 'first instance' (not necessarily the shortest). I am still having a problem defining exactly what is the 'first instance'. I think it is related to Menu ID numbers and Menu Item ID numbers, such that the 'first instance' is determined by the lowest Menu ID number and lowest Menu Item number.

For example,
If there are two possible pathways to a SOBI2 Entry,
(a) from Menu ID = 1 and Menu Item ID = 6
and
(b) from Menu ID = 2 and Menu Item ID = 3
then pathway (a) is used because it has the lowest MENU ID number (and the Menu Item ID are ignored).

if there are two possible pathways to a SOBI2 Entry,
(a) from Menu ID = 1 and Menu Item ID = 6
and
(b) from Menu ID = 1 and Menu Item ID = 3
then pathway (b) is used because the Menu ID's are the same, but Menu Item ID = 3 is lower than Menu Item ID = 6.

I'm trying to figure out if this is a sh404SEF setting that always defaults the entry view to the URL from the first category level? and why it doesn't include the sub-category and product levels in the entry details view of the url?

I do not think that it has anything to do with SEF Components or plugins.
If you disable your SEF Components/plugins, the pathway behavior seems to remain the same.
I do not use sh404SEF, so I do not know if this is true for that Component.

At least that is what I think is happening.

Regards - Mark

[floridaman2009]

Further update:

Well Mark, I gave up on Sh404sef for my SOBI install. Thankfully my site is really a directory and not content based [for now].

I dis-activated SH404SEF, activated native Joomla 1.5 SEF along with the SOBI SEF plug-in and the breadcrumbs are functioning!

Side note: I had to disable native "Add suffix to URLs" because it started duplicating html.html on the SOBI2 urls, but at least the breadcrumbs are now working on SOBI2.

Thanks for your input.

[aboututila]

Well Mark, I gave up on Sh404sef for my SOBI install. Thankfully my site is really a directory and not content based [for now]

floridaman2009,

A note on SEF URL's.
Joomla! 1.5.x native SEF URL's create SEF URL's for all Components with Author='Joomla! Project'
These are the Components included in the 'standard' Joomla! installation, (com_banners, com_contact, com_content, com_polls, com_newsfeeds, com_user, etc).
Because the Joomla! Developers do not know how the URL options for 3rd party Components (such as SOBI2) are to be processed, the 3rd Party Component developers should include a Component Router for Joomla 1.5.x with their Component package.

If all Joomla! 3rd party Component developers included a Component Router with their Component, then there would be no need for SEF Components such as sh404SEF, but,
since many developers do not include a Component Router for their Component, other SEF Components such as sh404SEF are needed to create SEF URL's for those Components. The SobiSEF plugin is a Component Router for Joomla 1.5.x for the SOBI2 Component.

If your web site is going to be displaying content mostly from the SOBI2 Component and 'standard' Joomla! Components, then it is arguably not necessary to use another 3rd Party SEF Component such as sh404SEF.
Refer - SobiSEF plugin and 3rd Party Joomla! SEF Extensions (AceSEF, sh404SEF, etc) - Item (2)

I dis-activated SH404SEF, activated native Joomla 1.5 SEF along with the SOBI SEF plug-in and the breadcrumbs are functioning!

Good news. I am glad you have a solution.

Side note: I had to disable native "Add suffix to URLs" because it started duplicating html.html on the SOBI2 urls, but at least the breadcrumbs are now working on SOBI2.

Hmmm, this should not happen.
If you have configured;
Joomla! Administrator->Site->Global Configuration->Site->SEO Settings->Add suffix to URLs = Yes
then the
Joomla! Administrator->Components->SOBI2->Plugins->SobiSEF->General Options->Add Suffix to Category URL ,and,
Joomla! Administrator->Components->SOBI2->Plugins->SobiSEF->Replacements->Page Suffix
settings are supposed to be ignored.

However I have not tested this.
I normally use;
Joomla! Administrator->Site->Global Configuration->Site->SEO Settings->Add suffix to URLs = No
and then use the
Joomla! Administrator->Components->SOBI2->Plugins->SobiSEF->General Options->Add Suffix to Category URL ,and,
Joomla! Administrator->Components->SOBI2->Plugins->SobiSEF->Replacements->Page Suffix
settings

Thanks for your input.

You are welcome.
We didn't manage to solve your problems 100%, but at least you have an acceptable solution/work-around.

Regards - Mark

[Trinity]

Hi Mark,

(9) Apparent Duplicate Categories in Joomla! Breadcrumb Module
This problem is not a Joomla! or SOBI2 bug. It is an effect of Joomla! behavior by design.
The problem is causing confusion with SOBI2 Users because Joomla! Breadcrumb is not being constructed as SOBI2 Users expect.
If after reading the following you are still having a problem, then there is a 'hack' available for mod_breadcrumbs that removes apparent duplicates.
See SOLVED Duplicate Breadcrumbs

I had the same problem with Virtuemart component and needed a solution.
As the modification in the post in Joomla forum modifies the Joomla core code I changed it a bit and moved it to the template file of the module mod_breadcrumbs. I attached the new template file "default.php".

This file has to be copied to folder /templates/name of your Joomla template/html/mod_breadcrumbs

The folder has to be created.

Trinity

[aboututila]

Trinity,

Thank you for that.
I will update Item (9) of my initial posting with a link to your posting above.

Regards - Mark

[Marple]

I had the same problem with Virtuemart component and needed a solution.
As the modification in the post in Joomla forum modifies the Joomla core code I changed it a bit and moved it to the template file of the module mod_breadcrumbs. I attached the new template file "default.php".

This file has to be copied to folder /templates/name of your Joomla template/html/mod_breadcrumbs

The folder has to be created.

Trinity

Hi Trinity, I've just started using Sobi2 and I'm experiencing the double breadcrumb issue described here. I'm a novice at changing code and I'm perplexed by your "I changed it a bit and moved it to the template file". Would it be possible for you or someone else to explain to me exactly how to achieve this fix please?

Thanks in anticipation,

Mark

UPDATE: Apologies! - I read this post before registering and couldn't see how to do it. Having registered and posted I can NOW see that there's a zip file attached.

[sparkosis]

There's an easier way to fix the double categories in breadcrumbs without hacking code. I found the answer in another post, but just so you don't have to go hunting here it is...

1. Purge SEF URLs in the SEF plugin (click the check box next to Purge SEF URL’s after save, then click save button.)
2. Then click on 'Recount Categories' in general configuration
3. Click 'Empty Cache'
Problem solved!

Richard