vForums Support > vForums :: Announcements :: > URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs
URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By Ross (admin) on 29th Sep 08 at 10:55am
A problem vForums faces (as do nearly all other forum services) is multiple URLs leading to the same page. In this case, it's the order of the parameters (board, action, topic etc.) in the URL. At present, no matter what order they are in they will still load the same topic. eg.

http://support.virtualforums.co.uk/board/general/topic/11681/action/view_topic/global-forum-rules---info

http://support.virtualforums.co.uk/topic/11681/action/view_topic/board/general/global-forum-rules---info

Both of those go to the same page. This can be problematic for search engines. To counter this, I will soon be standardizing this url structure so that any variations will be redirected to it. The standardized structure will look like:

http://support.virtualforums.co.uk/board/board_id/topic/topic_id/action/view_topic/subject-keywords/page/2

If anyone has any questions or concerns with this change then please post below and I will do my best to address them.
Re: URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By Nick (nickb) on 29th Sep 08 at 7:11pm
It sounds good Ross keep up the good work!
Re: URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By dog199200 (dog199200) on 29th Sep 08 at 7:38pm
i don't see any bugs with this, other then, wouldnt it possibly mess with the API system?
Re: URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By Ross (admin) on 30th Sep 08 at 8:10am
Posted By dog199200 on 29th Sep 08 at 7:38pm
 
i don't see any bugs with this, other then, wouldnt it possibly mess with the API system?


It wouldn't affect the API system at all. Any URLs in a different format to the one above (such as ones produced by use of the API) will be redirected to the standardized format.
Re: URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By dog199200 (dog199200) on 30th Sep 08 at 8:31am
ah ok, i wasnt sure of that
Re: URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By ashkir (ashkir) on 30th Sep 08 at 4:30pm
Thanks for offering the redirection from old nonstandard to standard. :]. That was my main worry. =].
Re: URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By Sven (sven) on 2nd Oct 08 at 2:51pm
Posted By dog199200 on 29th Sep 08 at 7:38pm
 
i don't see any bugs with this, other then, wouldnt it possibly mess with the API system?


As Ross said, it wouldn't do anything to it - except maybe improve it possibly so that it's all standardized, the system doesn't have to work as hard.

Sounds good {Smile}
Re: URL Structures - Standardised Topic Page URLs - Posted By Ross (admin) on 7th Oct 08 at 8:55am
I have now uploaded these changes, along with a few other bug fixes, to all forums.

Related to this, any modifications you make to your directory entry over the next couple of days will not yet show up on the main website. This is where we are changing the way the directory works. I'm hoping we'll be able to launch the new directory soon. There's just a few images and odd bits of code which need finishing off {Smile}