If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

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shockr
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If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by shockr »

Hey everyone,

I just set up a forum with phpBB 3.2 earlier this week, and I wanted to make the forum and topic URLs user-readable and SEO-friendly. I have read the forum and blog posts about how this doesn't really matter to the search engines anymore, but I figured it'd be a nice to have feature just for readability.

So I decided to make some modifications to the phpBB source files in order to get this to work. Note that this is not in any means the ideal way to do this, especially since if the modified files are affected in a future update, you will have to check and merge, but if you like to live on the edge, keep reading.

Warning/Disclaimer: Proceed with making these changes at your own risk. I am not liable for any damage or harm that may occur to your forum, database, computer or pets from making use of the files provided. Remember to create multiple backups of your files before doing anything.

First, we need to configure the URL rewrite rules.
  • memberlist.php becomes /members
  • memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2 becomes /members/u2-admin
  • viewforum.php?f=1 becomes /f1-your-first-forum
  • viewtopic.php?t=1&f=1 becomes /f1-your-first-forum/t1-my-topic-title
Define the following Apache rewrite rules (in your .htaccess - included in the archive - or your server configuration file):

Code: Select all

RewriteRule ^members(|/)$ /memberlist.php [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^members/u(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)$ /memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=$1 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^f(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)/t(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)(.*)$ /viewtopic.php?f=$1&t=$3 [QSA,L]
RewriteRule ^f(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)(.*)$ /viewforum.php?f=$1 [QSA,L]
If you're running nginx, add the following rules to your configuration:

Code: Select all

location /members {
    rewrite ^/members(|/)$ /memberlist.php last;
    rewrite ^/members/u(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-_]+)$ /memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=$1$is_args$args last;
}
location /f {
    rewrite ^/f(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)/t(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)(.*)$ /viewtopic.php?f=$1&t=$3$is_args$args last;
    rewrite ^/f(\d+)([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+)(.*)$ /viewforum.php?f=$1$is_args$args last;
}
Once that's completed, you will need to unpack the zip archive into your phpbb root folder. Remember to backup before extracting the archive. For reference, here's a list of files that will be replaced:

Code: Select all

.htaccess
index.php
memberlist.php
posting.php
search.php
viewforum.php
viewonline.php
viewtopic.php
includes/functions.php
includes/functions_content.php
includes/functions_display.php
includes/functions_posting.php
phpbb/feed/helper.php
To reiterate, this is not an ideal solution, but it works for my purposes. If you would like to see it in action, you can check the phpBB installation I set up at https://www.eresidency.co

You can download the ZIP archive from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B27L6m ... sp=sharing

Cheers.
.m.
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Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by .m. »

this could be useful for some users. Thank You @shockr :)

however not sure that many would attempt it
almost all users like to have officially supported methods ..

also a SEO rewriting URLs extension is in development ..
shockr
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Joined: Tue May 02, 2017 11:52 pm

Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by shockr »

Oh yeah, definitely. Like I said, it's not the ideal way to do it, but it's a quick and dirty solution that works well enough, and I just thought I should share since some users may be interested.
koraldon
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Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by koraldon »

Hi,
Looking great - best solution is for you to submit it as a PR to phpbb, so it will be officially included in 3.3.
This will be awesome.
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Ger
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Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by Ger »

koraldon wrote: Mon May 08, 2017 12:19 pm submit it as a PR to phpbb, so it will be officially included in 3.3.
I wouldn't count on it.
My extensions:
Simple CMS, Feed post bot, Avatar Resize, Modbreak, Magic OGP, Live topic update, Modern Quote, Quoted Where (GDPR) and Autoresponder.
Newest: FAQ manager for 3.2

Like my work? Buy me a coffee to keep it coming. :ugeek:

-Don't PM me for support-
koraldon
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Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by koraldon »

Ger wrote: Tue May 09, 2017 6:54 am
koraldon wrote: Mon May 08, 2017 12:19 pm submit it as a PR to phpbb, so it will be officially included in 3.3.
I wouldn't count on it.
According to phpbb developers that is the way.
DavidIQ wrote: Wed Mar 01, 2017 12:07 pm But this is basically why these SEO discussions never produce any results. It's a lot of talking and arguing and none of the SEO supporters do anything to actually address these grievances. There is a process for getting things added to the core and I can assure you that "exchanging code via PM" is not part of that process. And of course you could say "I can just give you the code over messages for you to do that" except that I know little about SEO nor what the code is supposed to accomplish. I cannot, in good conscience, support or contribute code that I don't understand. If it requires refinements I wouldn't be able to effectively do so.
I'm amazed by the negative attitude to discourage people from contributing to phpbb.
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DavidIQ
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Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by DavidIQ »

koraldon wrote: Tue May 09, 2017 10:48 am I'm amazed by the negative attitude to discourage people from contributing to phpbb.
Exactly the point I was making and what you've just accentuated. ;)
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Derky
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Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by Derky »

shockr wrote: Sat May 06, 2017 2:34 amYou can download the ZIP archive from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B27L6m ... sp=sharing
Thanks for sharing your code but to all the users of phpBB we however disrecommend using unvalidated code. The recommended way for you is to make it an extension and submit it to the Customisations Database for a (security) review. ;)
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Kailey
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Re: If you're interested in user-readable / SEO URLs for phpBB 3.2, look inside.

Post by Kailey »

Please don't bump a 4 year old topic. If you would like an friendly URL extension, then I would suggest starting a topic in Extension Requests.
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