Seem like a very good component with tons of features, yet some of the features dont seem to be working at the time I downloaded this one for 1.5(a few days ago)
1. The character replacement doesnt work. I had to set up a vietnamese site which use unicode characters and so I have to use character replacement to make sure the url contain only "english" characters, but that doesnt work at all.
2. I then tried to use page alias, doesnt work either. It keeps using title.
3. Also, when this module is enabled, I cant even use my custom page title at all.

Anyway, this component gives too many features, yet important features do not work. I have to go to Artio's one which offers far less options, but does work.

I love this component for it's free and has very very many options to tweak around. I especially like the security functions. It helped me a lot with tracking hacking attempts.

One thing I should note here is that, sh404SEF shouldn't use the classic joomla 1.0.x SEF like "components/com_xxx/" for unsupported components. I personally think joomla 1.5 SEF would do a much better job.

Thank you Yannick and keep up the good work.

Its ok component, but some settings works flawlessly. and if you want some help, its so hard to get an answer your questions on their support forums. Good Luck.

You may want to read the article http://extensions.siliana.com/forums/index.php?topic=7367.0

Use it in "with httaccess" mode. Don't forget to uncomment the line involving ‘RewriteBase /’.

If you installed Joomla in a subfolder like www.yourdomain.com/subfolder than
RewriteBase /subfolder

ps: It is on a linux hosting and you may need to wait couple of hours that Godaddy recognizes your htaccess file.

Many thanks Siliana.

There a lot of extra functions, but sometimes the joomla 1.5 build have little bugs by using the right sef adress. after all it is worth to use it.

Great component for all SEO people!

But be aware. If you are using Sh with Joomfish 2.03 you can get some menu translation problems (menu sticks in a default language, only reloading page helps to get a new proper translation.).

Good solution will be copying (using) the jslanguageselection module from Joomfish 2.00.

Many reviews here state that this extension is the bomb. I truly want it to be - Unfortunately, I can't comment on the functionality of the extension because I could never get it to work.

Documentation is lacking - 1) There is a 3rd party that wrote an extensive install guide, but at the same time claim it may/may not work for everyone, 2) Search and you'll find different install methods that guide you through different processes and outline different methods, and 3) When I research the problems on their forum, I notice many people were having the same issues, but their posts had no replies.

Got to a point where the amount of time I was spending on trying to get this extension to work, was not worth the effort.

They have a longway to go.

If your time is valuable, you'll find another SEF solution that functions out-of-the-box.

If you don't care about your time - Have at it.

When Joomla 1.5.10 cache is turned on (configuration setting and page cache plugin enabled), sh404SEF is not working - sometimes urls do not get translated and sometimes GoogleBot gets 404 errors on previously existing content.

This means that you kill your SEO activities with Joomla 1.5.10 version installed.

This could be not just sh404SEF problem, because after upgrade to Joomla 1.5.10 other components and modules experienced problems as well. Even articles images stopped working.

This is a great extension, having all the functions that I need. However current Joomla 1.5 native version (com_sh404SEF-15_1.0.19_Beta_build_232.joomla1.5.x.zip) is in beta and few issues can make it useless in particular circumstances:

- When Joomla cache is enabled: active & current menu is assigned to the wrong menu item
workaround:
disable Joomla cache

- When using Joom!Fish newer then 2.0RC there's a problem with translation when switching back to default language.
workarounds:
hack the code (http://extensions.siliana.com/forums/index.php?topic=11082.75) and add new commands to .htaccess (http://www.joomfish.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4040) or install Joom!Fish 2.0RC (I didn't try)

I spent a lot of time on those issues, hope it will be helpful to somebody

This one solved all my Sobi2 problems. Dont need and other SEF tools anymore. Switch all the others off. Just this one. Thanks.

I'm so happy I came across your component! I was having issues with links not coming across properly using the Joomla!SEO. Some links were correct, and some would point to the wrong article. This happened frequently with the 'Popular' module which generates the links to an article automatically.

Anyway, I installed sh404SEF and there are no problems here! Very easy to install and get going within minutes. There's a lot to read up on so I can customize it, but for what I needed, right out of the box it was awesome. Thank you so much for creating such a fantastic component for Joomla!

Let's be clear about one thing. The rewriting components are very very strong. If you're under the impression that setting these things up is straightforwad bear in mind that 7 years ago a handful of people were able to do what this script makes possible via your "install component screen". NEVER EVER install these components on anything other than a test site.

This component is much better than Artio, because it allows you to map any created aliases (for example, when joomla adds the print or PDF id to the URL, you can group these URLs to the main one). This reduces PR leakage.

I can only recommend using the htaccess option on this script as the simulated htacess can result in urls like this

www.domain.com/somecategory/index.php/everything/index.php.

I was able to remove this by using an htaccess.

Other things I've noticed.

If you clean the cache some of the pages redirects are not re-created. The result is 404s on these pages. The only way I have been able to fix this is to add the missing pages as menu items, click the links (which generates the redirect), and then switch the pages off in the menu.

I've been using this script successfully for over 18 months on a website, and I have to say thank you very much for this as a result.

I would be good if we could see the Canonical tag implemented into the script at some point in the future.

This review complements one I wrote for Artio SEO, the competitor for sh404, in which I noted the disastrous incompatibility of the two.

This point should be emphasized regarding both SEO components, especially Artio.

Do NOT install Artio after sh404, without certain preparation.

Virtually anyone new to Joomla SEO will likely pick sh404 before Artio, due to better reviews and Editor's Pick. If for any reason you later think, 'I wll try Artio too', be forewarned. Your installation of sh404 1st, then by Artio 2nd, will likely trash your site. Artio installs itself as ENABLED by default. And it is incompatible with the sh404 .htaccess.

Even worse, if you first UNINSTALL sh404, and then install Artio thinking this will work ok, you will discover instant problems, because sh404 reportedly does not completely uninstall, but leaves conflicting db tables. YOu will only find out after seeing the wreck. Then you visit Artio forum and discover the reason after the fact.

(For the text of the forum post, explaining the corrective, see my recent review of Artio SEO.)

A second major problem with sh404 installation is that the config instructions for 1.5.x native version only refer to conditions for 1.0.17, and this I found confusing and useless. There are no coherent config instruction for 1.5.x. There ARE references to the fact that sh404 native can work with or without .htaccess config. But so what? What if you have already used .htaccess for your standard Joomla SEO? What do you do? (I think most people will start with standard Joomla SEO before the exotic components.) What do you do if upgrading to the sh404 component? No answers, but the component will not work without some config.

No instructions what to do with .htaccess on the new sh404, whether to use it as is, disable, or reconfig. This is largly because server configs vary. But how do you install the component safely without this issue being first understood and resolved ?

If you need config details from hosting provider, what specifically should you request and what do with the info when you get it?

So, this a warning on both sh404 and Artio, for lacking a clear data on successful config. sh404 is under-documented, and Artio worse because of very likely problems coming after use of sh404.

What seems to be a long time ago I had some problems with getting sh404SEF working. I then got my .htaccess file right. I can install and have sh404SEF running on .htaccess with nice SEF url's in a couple of minutes now.
I have all my plugins in a folder which I FTP across. It is a snip.

I do have a problem with the component at the moment. Joomfish updated to 2.03.
The combination of sh404SEF and Joomfish 2.03 knocks my main menu out. The buttons disappear. This error does not seem to be widely recognised. A previous upgrade of Joomfish which clashed was sorted very fast by sh404SEF - but on this occassion the problem was wide spread.

I think it is a good piece of kit - I wish plugins were more abundant - and I am not up to writing them myself yet.

The component installs easily but getting it to work proved a nightmare.

After installing, all layout control displaered.
SEF urls wouldn't get generated, and after activating it, all of site content layout disappeared.
Links wouldn't work correctly. Lots of 404 errors.

Occasionally raw HTML would get displayed instead of rendered pages.

These are my observations of the component, and I must say I'm disappointed.
I've had to deactivate it to get the site to load properly.

This is a great extension, especially the way it deals with duplicate URLs. Only downside, and unfortunately this is a big one for me, is that it does not work well with JoomFish. Could not get Joomfish working with it despite extensive reading on the sh404SEF support forum, too many issues with the jfrouter and language menu selections.

If you don't need JoomFish, this is the best SEF plugin, I've tried most of them

Everybody stop complaining they offer you a free component that fixes the sef issues, if you have a problem with extensions/sefs then it's the the developer of that extensions problem not their fault. I hope however this does become commercial and we might be able to subscribe in order for you to develop extensions for us which some developers won't that would be the only way i would use the commercial version they are having discussions about.f

hI.
I really love this extension, and i always used in my website that as an on line shop with virtuemart.

unfortunately some clients of mine started complaining that when they did a search they could never navigate between pages of the search. It always stays in the same page.
I went and disabled sh404SEF and it works again...

Hope this gets fixed soon, cause i'd love to use it.
:)

For my site it`s a good extension, could be better, but I understood that it`s a one man job.
There are things that I like and hate about this component.

I like:
#1.1. meta descripton, keywords, title control
#1.2. no-follow menu links
#2. h1 tags
#3. custom 404 pages
#4. 301 url redirections
#5. url personalisation: add/remove section/category or section/category id for diferent components, for example for content
#6. very friendly titles
#7. posibility to add caracters in a caracter replacement list

I don`t like:
#1. The cache, db or php that is a time waster, is slowing down server, using 2 much space and 2 many queries.
#2. the component is j1.5 native but is not using the ROUTER files, it`s using it`s own plugin files
#3. meta description, keywords anf titles are not stored as utf8.
I have feature requests:
#1. The plugins showld be the router files, so maybe there will be no need for sef_ext and cache.
#2. Integration in future j1.6.

I hope that in the near future sh404sef will use the router files from the j1.5 native components and with it`s management interface would alow a better personalisation of the urls.

Had only one error after the installation of the 1.5 Native component.

The error happened after I installed and tried to go into the "sh404SEF Config". It kept showing me a blank page with a link "Back to main window". I looked at the source of the page and it had an error relating to the Editor.php file. It was due to the fact that I was using JCE Editor as my user's default editor. After I changed it to TinyMCE it worked perfectly. So it may be JCE's fault for not being able to support this component, or maybe support for JCE was not added to this component.

Overall, a great & must-have plugin. Tested on WAMPserver.