[Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

I figured it was time that a revised edition of this tutorial be written up. So, I asked Dani if it was ok and well..... here it is :D

This revised edition includes how to make your forumhome, forumdisplay, showthread and who's online sections all show search engine friendly urls as well as in the navbar. It includes the id & name in the url of forums and threads.

Please take care when performing each step, making sure you perform the correct action - adding code ABOVE or BELOW other lines or REPLACING code.

Step 1 - File Edits
This step covers all files that need to be edited. Step 2 covers the template edits.

forumdisplay.php

Find:
[php]foreach ($parentlist AS $forumID)
{
$forumTitle = $forumcache["$forumID"]['title'];
$navbits["forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forumID"] = $forumTitle;
}[/php]Replace with:
[php]// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################
foreach ($parentlist AS $forumID)
{
$forumTitle = $forumcache["$forumID"]['title'];
$forumURL = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-",str_replace("/", "-", $forumTitle)));
$navbits["f$forumID-$forumURL.html"] = $forumTitle;
}
// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################[/php]Find:
[php]$thread = process_thread_array($thread, $lastread, $foruminfo['allowicons']);[/php]Below that add:
[php]// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################
$thread['url'] = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-", $thread['threadtitle']));
$thread['url'] = ereg_replace("[\/!£$%^&*«»,.;:'#@~{}|=+`¬<>?]+", "", $thread['url']);
// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################[/php]

showthread.php

Find:
[php]foreach ($parentlist AS $forumID)
{
$forumTitle = $forumcache["$forumID"]['title'];
$navbits["forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forumID"] = $forumTitle;
}[/php]Replace with:
[php]// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################
foreach ($parentlist AS $forumID)
{
$forumTitle = $forumcache["$forumID"]['title'];
$forumURL = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-",str_replace("/", "-", $forumTitle)));
$navbits["f$forumID-$forumURL.html"] = $forumTitle;
}
// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################[/php]

search.php

Find:
[php]$thread = process_thread_array($thread, $lastread["$thread[forumid]"]);[/php]Below that add:
[php]// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################
$thread['url'] = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-", $thread['threadtitle']));
$thread['url'] = ereg_replace("[\/!£$%^&*«»,.;:'#@~{}|=+`¬<>?]+", "", $thread['url']);
// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################[/php]

includes/functions_forumlist.php

Find:
[php]// do light bulb
$forum['statusicon'] = fetch_forum_lightbulb($forumid, $lastpostinfo, $forum);[/php]Above that add:
[php]// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################
$forum['url'] = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-",str_replace("/", "-", $forum['title'])));
// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################[/php]Find:
[php]$forumperms = $bbuserinfo['forumpermissions']["$forumid"];[/php]Above that add:
[php]// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################
$forum['url'] = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-",str_replace("/", "-", $forum['title'])));
// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################[/php]

includes/functions_online.php

Find:
[php]// ###################### Start showonline #######################[/php]Above that add:
[php]// ###################### MOD_REWRITE HACK #################
function mod_rewrite_title($title)
{
$rewritten = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-",str_replace("/", "-", $title)));
return ereg_replace("[\/!£$%^&*«»,.;:'#@~{}|=+`¬<>?]+", "", $rewritten);
}
// ###################### MOD_REWRITE HACK #################[/php]Find all instances of:
[php]<a href=\"showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$threadid\" title=\"$threadpreview\">$threadtitle</a>[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href=\"t$threadid-" .mod_rewrite_title($threadtitle). ".html\" title=\"$threadpreview\">$threadtitle</a>[/php]Find all instances of:
[php]<a href=\"forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forumid\">$forumtitle</a>[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href=\"f$forumid-" .mod_rewrite_title($forumtitle). ".html\">$forumtitle</a>[/php]Find:
[php]convert_short_varnames($values);
$userinfo['values'] = $values;[/php]Below that add:
[php]// #################### MOD_REWRITE HACK #################
if (eregi("t([0-9]+)-(.*).html$", $filename, $tmatch)) {
$filename = 'showthread.php';
$values['threadid'] = $tmatch[1];
}

if (eregi("f([0-9]+)-(.*).html$", $filename, $fmatch)) {
$filename = 'forumdisplay.php';
$values['forumid'] = $fmatch[1];
}
// #################### MOD_REWRITE HACK #################[/php]
Step 2 - Template Edits
This step covers all the template edits needed. Step 3 covers the .htaccess file needed.

Within the Forum Home Templates group the following templates all require the modification below.

forumhome_forumbit_level1_nopost
forumhome_forumbit_level1_post
forumhome_forumbit_level2_nopost
forumhome_forumbit_level2_post
forumhome_subforumbit_nopost
forumhome_subforumbit_post

In each of the templates above find:
[php]<a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forum[forumid]">[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href="f$forum[forumid]-$forum[url].html">$forum[title]</a>[/php]

In the forumhome_lastpostby template find:
[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=newpost&amp;t=$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid]" title="<phrase 1="$lastpostinfo[lastthread]">$vbphrase[go_first_unread_in_thread_x]</phrase>"><strong>$lastpostinfo[trimthread]</strong></a>[/php]And Replace with:
[php]<a href="newpostinthread$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid].html" title="<phrase 1="$lastpostinfo[lastthread]">$vbphrase[go_first_unread_in_thread_x]</phrase>"><strong>$lastpostinfo[trimthread]</strong></a>[/php]Find:
[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=lastpost&amp;t=$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/lastpost.gif" alt="$vbphrase[go_to_last_post]" border="0" /></a>[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href="lastpostinthread$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid].html"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/lastpost.gif" alt="$vbphrase[go_to_last_post]" border="0" /></a>[/php]Find:[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=lastpost&amp;t=$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/lastpost.gif" alt="$vbphrase[go_to_last_post]" border="0" /></a>[/php]And replace with:[php]<a href="lastpostinthread$lastpostinfo[lastthreadid].html"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_button]/lastpost.gif" alt="$vbphrase[go_to_last_post]" border="0" /></a>[/php]

In the Threadbit Templates group, the threadbit template requires the following modifications.

Find:
[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=lastpost&amp;t=$thread[threadid]">[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href="lastpostinthread$thread[threadid].html">[/php]Find:
[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=newpost&amp;t=$thread[threadid]">[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href="newpostinthread$thread[threadid].html">[/php]Find:
[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$thread[threadid]$thread[highlight]">[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href="t$thread[threadid]-$thread[url].html">[/php]Find:
[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]goto=lastpost&amp;t=$thread[threadid]">[/php]And replace with:
[php]<a href="lastpostinthread[threadid].html">[/php]

Step 3 -.htaccess file

Open notepad or your usual text editor and copy and paste the following into a new file.

[php]RewriteEngine on
Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteRule ^t([0-9]+).html$ showthread.php?t=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^lastpostinthread([0-9]+).html$ showthread.php?goto=lastpost&t=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^newpostinthread([0-9]+).html$ showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=$1 [L]
RewriteRule ^f([0-9]+).html$ forumdisplay.php?f=$1 [L][/php]Save this file as .htaccess and upload it to your forum's root directory.


And that's it!

Now just sit back and wait for the search engines to spider your new urls :o

If I missed any steps (god forbid) or there's an error in any of the steps, please let me know and I'll update it.

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

There are two things that need mentioning:

1. In the includes/functions_forumlist.php file where I mention to find
[php]$forumperms = $bbuserinfo['forumpermissions']["$forumid"];[/php] and and above it add
[php]// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################
$forum['url'] = strtolower(str_replace(" ", "-",str_replace("/", "-", $forum['title'])));
// ################ MOD_REWRITE HACK ######################[/php]There are 3 instances of the line. It's the last instance (around line 530) you place the code above.

2. In the includes/functions_online.php file where I mention replacing all instances of
[php]<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$threadid\" title=\"$threadpreview\">$threadtitle</a>[/php]with
[php]<a href="t$threadid-" .mod_rewrite_title($threadtitle). ".html\" title=\"$threadpreview\">$threadtitle</a>[/php]and replacing
[php]<a href="forumdisplay.php?$session[sessionurl]f=$forumid\">$forumtitle</a>[/php]with
[php]<a href="f$forumid-" .mod_rewrite_title($forumtitle). ".html\">$forumtitle</a>[/php]If your code has backslashes ( \ ), you need to keep them in the code.

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

Great work KeithMcL, thanks for doing this!

/me heads off to change the link in my Sig to point to this tute :)

Great job Dani for this resource :)

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

No problem. Hope it works ok for everyone :)

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

One suggestion: is there any reason why we shouldn't have the mod_rewrite_title() function defined only in includes/functions.php, and call that to rewrite every title in the hack? that way the second element of the function (the [php]ereg_replace("[\/!£$%^&*«»,.;:'#@~{}|=+`¬<>?]+", "", $rewritten);[/php]) could be applied across the board, ensureing that all links across the site will match, making the SEO'ness better (making sure there is only one "page" per page of content).

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

I have a question about the step below

In my includes/functions_online.php I have

<a href=\"showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$threadid\" title=\"$threadpreview\">$threadtitle</a>

but the above shows

<a href="showthread.php?$session[sessionurl]t=$threadid\" title=\"$threadpreview\">$threadtitle</a>

what do I do? it appears that when you use the code tags here to show code it takes out the a href=\ and makes it a href=

Am I correct with this as it states in one of the above posts (post #2)

Help pls

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

Very interesting, I'd love to see this on our boards :)

I tested this on our testing forum, but in contrast to dani's hack it doesn't seem to work: http://forum.mbrd.de

Any ideas what I might have overseen?

Thanks,
-Tom

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

I *think* this is a typo man...

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

This is mighty cool stuff, and I seem to have it all working fine on NZB.

After 2 days, my Adsense ads are a lot more targetted. I don't know if it's due to this hacking, but I'll assume it is and add my thanks. :)

One suggestion: Maybe putting it all up as a .txt file would prove helpful...or something that doesn't strip the backslashes and "&amp" bits.

Re: [Revised] vBulletin Mod_rewrite Tutorial
 

That would be nice as that is what I had seen when I was trying to use some of this, I was having a very hard time when I was doing the searches, untill I noticed that the backslashes were stripped.... so I stopped.

Didn't want to go to far and something go wrong and not knowing where it happened would be a pain to fix.

Coll